Date of Award

5-2005

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Program

Engineering and Applied Science

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

McCorquodale, J. Alex

Second Advisor

Outlaw, Curtis

Third Advisor

Barbe, Donald

Fourth Advisor

Cothren, Gianna

Fifth Advisor

Georgiou, Ioannis

Abstract

An urban flood damage model for the drainage area serve by Pump Station No. 4 (Prentiss, New Orleans, Louisiana) has been completed. This study presents the research effort needed to develop a stormwater management model (SWMM) integrated with GIS that includes a Damage Model to estimate the losses produced by storm events on flood prone areas. The latest LIDAR data are used for the topography. The drainage area for this study covers approximately 3218 acres, with elevations ranging from -9 ft to 6 ft above sea level. The runoff produced is pumped into Lake Pontchartrain via London Outfall Canal. The study area includes a pump station with a capacity of 106 m3/s and a complex drainage system including a 10 ft siphon that drains the runoff on the western side. The hydrology and hydraulic routing for the watershed was estimated using the U.S. EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) and the input of the model was created using a geodatabase composed of nodes, conduits and subcatchment areas developed in ArcGIS 8.2. The GIS was designed to take advantage of the importing node and graphic capabilities of the SWMM. Since all features used by SWMM were georeferenced, node flood elevation data were transferred back for display in geographic space. This approach allows for a more accurate volume computation of flooded areas by using Boolean operations on a Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) surface of node elevations and a TIN surface of LIDAR elevation data. Flood volumes were obtained for the study area by simulating a series of rain events. These flood volumes were then incorporated into a Damage model to estimate damage rating curves for the study area. The 1:100 year damage was estimated to be 17.2 million of dollars (2005 US dollars). The average annual flood damage was estimated to be 5.5 million of dollars (2005 US dollars). The developed Annual Flood Maps can be used to set rational flood insurance rates or to plan improvements to the drainage system. This information can be used by FEMA and by the private insurance industry of the State

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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