Risk-Based Decision Making Model for the Selection of Flood Mitigation Alternatives
type: CreativeWork
description: In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the frequency of natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes and flooding, resulting in big economic, environmental, and social impacts. In the case of flood events, impacts such as community anxiety, loss of life, water pollution, and contamination of agricultural land have been found to be equally, if not more important, than the economic impacts of such events. Nevertheless, the literature shows that flood risk assessment studies incorporating economic, environmental, and societal impacts are limited. In addition, flood mitigation measures are typically compared focusing on economic criteria and not considering stakeholders or the implementation characteristics of the flood mitigation alternatives. This study proposes a holistic framework for watershed flood management that considers economic, social, environmental, and implementation criteria for selecting among flood mitigation alternatives. First, a spatial flood risk assessment framework capable of integrating economic, social, and environmental impacts is introduced in order to assess the possible losses and risks within the communities of a watershed. The risk assessment uses HAZUS software from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is executed for five different return periods. Second, in order to select from multiple mitigation alternatives, a Decision-Making Models (DMM) is proposed. The first model uses the results from the risk assessment and the mitigation alternatives are evaluated using a Monte Carlo Simulation and probabilistic optimization. The second DMM model incorporates stakeholders characteristics and opinions using stakeholder theory, network analysis, and the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). Two surveys were developed and deployed to public officials of agencies involved in the planning and implementation of flood mitigation alternatives and to the community, respectively. Along with this information, technical …
abstract: In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the frequency of natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes and flooding, resulting in big economic, environmental, and social impacts. In the case of flood events, impacts such as community anxiety, loss of life, water pollution, and contamination of agricultural land have been found to be equally, if not more important, than the economic impacts of such events. Nevertheless, the literature shows that flood risk assessment studies incorporating economic, environmental, and societal impacts are limited. In addition, flood mitigation measures are typically compared focusing on economic criteria and not considering stakeholders or the implementation characteristics of the flood mitigation alternatives. This study proposes a holistic framework for watershed flood management that considers economic, social, environmental, and implementation criteria for selecting among flood mitigation alternatives. First, a spatial flood risk assessment framework capable of integrating economic, social, and environmental impacts is introduced in order to assess the possible losses and risks within the communities of a watershed. The risk assessment uses HAZUS software from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is executed for five different return periods. Second, in order to select from multiple mitigation alternatives, a Decision-Making Models (DMM) is proposed. The first model uses the results from the risk assessment and the mitigation alternatives are evaluated using a Monte Carlo Simulation and probabilistic optimization. The second DMM model incorporates stakeholders characteristics and opinions using stakeholder theory, network analysis, and the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). Two surveys were developed and deployed to public officials of agencies involved in the planning and implementation of flood mitigation alternatives and to the community, respectively. Along with this information, technical …
author: Sanabria Andino, Natalia M.
language: English
keywords: flood mitigation, decision making, risk assessment, flood impacts
date published: 2015-06-26T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:26:55Z
provider: University of New Mexico
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of New Mexico

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1928/27960