Flood hazard energy in urban areas: a new integrated method for flood risk analysis in synthesizing interactions with urban boundary layer

Abstract:

Since urban physical characteristics (such as morphology and land-use/land-cover) are different from those of nature, altered interactions between the surface and atmosphere (especially urban boundary layer, UBL) or surface and subsurface can affect the hydrologic behavior and hence the flood hazards. In this research we focus on three main aspects of the urban surface/atmosphere interactions that affect flood hazard: urban heat island (UHI) effect, increased surface roughness, and accumulated aerosols. These factors, along with the uncertainties in quantifying these components make risk analysis intractable. In order to perform a risk analysis, the impact of these components needs to be mapped to a variable that can be mathematically described in a risk-analysis framework. We propose defining hazard energy as a surrogate for the combined effect of these three components. Perturbations that can change the hazard energy come from diverse sources in the urban areas and these somewhat disconnected things can be combined by the energy concept to characterize the impacts of urban areas in risk assessment. This approach synthesizes across hydrological and hydraulic processes in UBL, land surface, subsurface, and sewer network with scrutinizing energy exchange across places. We can extend our understanding about not only the influence of cities on local climate in rural areas or larger scales but also the interaction of cities and nature affecting each other.