Flood Exposure, Vulnerability, and Adaptation

ENVIR ST 403 LEC 002
Wednesday, 1:05–3 p.m.
3 credits

Instructor

Course Description

This is a new community-based learning course for upper division undergraduates, cross-listed with graduate courses, to holistically understand the social, biophysical, economic, and infrastructural dynamics of floods and how they impact people and communities.

The course will start with hydrologic foundations to what a flood is and how to measure it, the role of a changing climate in shaping flood hazards, and land use changes influence floods. We will work with different data sources- from stream gauges to flood models to satellite-based flood maps made with AI- to understand this hydrologic basis.

After developing a hydrologic basis for estimating flood hazard, students will learn flood exposure and vulnerability assessment, to understand how to estimate people and assets exposed to floods, and their susceptibility to harm and damage from extreme events.

In addition to quantitative data analysis, this section will examine the root causes of flood vulnerability, and the essential role of qualitative methods to unpack how systemic inequality shapes who gets flooded, how they recover, and who gets to rebuild (and where).

The last part of the course addresses flood adaptation — what works to address flooding and who benefits or loses with different solutions? Here we will review the role of insurance, land use policy, grey/green infrastructure, buyouts, and other attempts to mitigate damage to lives and livelihoods in current and future climates.

This course includes a community-based learning component that will be developed with two course flood fellows. The two fellows coming from a civic organization funded to collaborate in this course will attend four virtual sessions and two in person sessions. The fellows will work with students on the final assignment to develop a theory of change around flood justice in their community and co-develop final data analysis projects students will undertake in groups as their final project.

Flood fellows are likely coming from two regions in the U.S. — one in south Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border (learn more about the FLUJOS project) and one in Wisconsin.