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The purpose of this thesis was to develop a methodology that could be used by local communities to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of their floodplain management programs. The methodology (i.e.: model) was designed to be usable by communities without requiring computer capability. The model looks at cost-effectiveness in terms of minimizing the average annual flood damages and the costs of programs implemented by the community to reduce flood damages. The Cities of Decatur, Elkhart, and Kokomo were selected to field test the model to illustrate current conditions in these communities. The City of Decatur was used as an example to show how alternative program scenarios could be developed, incorporated into the model, and used to determine the most cost-effective combination of average annual damages and program costs. The model was run to illustrate its method of operation and not to determine the cost-effectiveness of the floodplain management programs in the Cities of Decatur, Elkhart, and Kokomo. / Department of Urban Planning

The Community Rating System (CRS) was introduced to encourage flood mitigation and increase National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) participation via premium discounts. It is not clear, however, how additional mitigation and premium discounts affect NFIP participation and damage claims payments. We employ matching methods and log-linear regression framework to estimate the impact of CRS participation (versus non-participation) on outcomes. We also analyze the effect of individual CRS mitigation activities on outcomes. We do so while controlling for key geospatial, socioeconomic, and time effects. Results show a positive and significant effect of CRS participation on NFIP participation, but no significant effect on damage claims payments. Outreach and flood data maintenance activities have positive effect on NFIP participation while floodplain mapping and flood protection have negative effect. Flood protection information and storm water management have negative effect on damage claims payments while floodplain management planning and acquisition and relocation have positive effect.

Until the early twentieth century, Americans generally responded to the risk of floods by building protective levees. By the late 1800s, this approach was firmly entrenched in federal policy. Because of the singular focus on levees, floods actually became more severe, with a prime example occurring in 1927. The floods of 1927 demonstrated that levees-only was an untenable policy, but a new approach to managing flood risk took several decades to fully materialize. The geographer Gilbert Fowler White played a central role in developing the nation’s new approach to floods. In his 1945 doctoral dissertation, White laid out a multiaceted approach to flood risks that promoted the accommodation of nature at times, rather than relying exclusively on ever-greater works of engineering to address the risk of flood. The passage of the National Flood Insurance Act in 1968 demonstrates the acceptance of White’s ideas into federal policy.

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This research explores geospatial patterns in social vulnerability to flooding and experimentally examines the effect of coverage maximums on flood insurance demand. In the first chapter, I analyze census data for the City of Calgary from 1991-2016 to identify trends in social vulnerability based on flood hazard level. Using a quasi-experimental design, I estimate the short-term changes in social vulnerability attributable to the 2013 Calgary flood. The results show that the Calgary flood was associated with a 2.6% increase in postsecondary education, a 1.4% decrease in the immigrant population, a 1.7% decrease in the visible minority population, a $7,100 increase in median family income, 2.8% decrease in home ownership, 3.7% increase in housing construction and 2.2% increase in recent movers. Together, these findings suggest that the highest flood hazard areas in Calgary are generally comprised of lower vulnerability populations; absolute loss potential from floods is getting higher over time due to higher property wealth in high flood hazard areas; and flooding events are associated with a decline in social vulnerability over the short-term. In the second chapter, I examine flood insurance coverage preferences through the use of a hypothetical choice experiment. The experiment was designed to examine the effect of dwelling value and coverage limit on the probability of flood insurance purchase, while holding the probability of flooding and insurance price constant. Controlling for income, the results indicate that amount of coverage is negatively related to flood insurance demand, however, for people in high-value dwellings the opposite is observed. This may suggest an approach to flood insurance as an investment into high-value properties as a financial asset, but the trade-off in higher yearly premiums may not seem worth the investment for lower-valued dwellings. This research shows an inconsistent demand for flood insurance, dependent on dwelling value and independent of income. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / In this research I analyze the population characteristics of the City of Calgary geographically in order to determine if more vulnerable populations are exposed to the hazard of flooding. I also look at the before-and-after flood population characteristics of the flooded and non-flooded areas to see if flooding makes communities more or less vulnerable following an event. My aim is to provide context for the flooding hazard in Calgary and see if a flood changes the population vulnerability of the affected areas afterwards. I also conduct a choice experiment where I provide participants with a devised flood insurance scenario. I keep some of the variables constant, such as flood probability and insurance price, but change the amount of coverage and dwelling value randomly to see if they influence the likelihood that people buy insurance. The goal of this is to understand how insurance maximums can influence consumer demand.

Thesis (M.M.P.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: George R. Parsons, Dept. of Marine and Earth Studies. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. En.)--Miami University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], v, 169, [1] p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36).

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