Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Slobodan P. Simonovic

Abstract

Climate change will bring to the Upper Thames River basin more severe and more frequent floods. The City of London, which has a population of over 350,000, is one of the most vulnerable locations in the basin. This study focuses on floodplain mapping and hydraulic modeling, which constitutes one component of a larger project for the assessment of the risk of climate change (with a special emphasis on flooding) to London’s public infrastructure. A combined approach to climate and hydrologic modeling was used to generate input flow data for hydraulic modeling. Standard computer software, HEC-RAS, is used for hydraulic computation of water elevation. HEC-GeoRAS (an extension of ArcGIS) is used for the preparation of spatial data for input into a HEC-RAS hydraulic model and the generation of GIS data from the output of HEC-RAS in order to generate floodplain maps. Results of floodplain mapping indicate that the City of London will face more extensive flooding due to climate change that will increase risk to people, infrastructure and environment. Maps generated in this research can be used to prioritize climate change adaptation strategies.

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