Klamath River Flood Maps and Risk


For this assignment I really enjoyed using FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL)Viewer. From the flood data research earlier in the semester, I found that the two most likely sites for flooding on the Klamath were from the confluence of the Trinity downstream to the mouth of the river at the Pacific Ocean near Klamath and Requa, CA. Its a very interactive ArcGIS site where you can follow the length of the river and it will layer in blue the possible flood plain. The maps are divided into FIRM Panels and you can zoom in and download each panel. This is the the Pacific to the Trinity River:






And this is around Seiad Valley, upriver a ways:



Clearly some of the files download differently, but on the site, you can zoom in all in color, and the basic blue layer of the flood plain usually is marked with the letter A. It was helpful to explore the Klamath County Flood Insurance Site to understand what the lettering meant. On this site, a landowner or homeowner can search their parcel and and out if they are at risk of flooding and if so, if flood insurance is mandatory. This site also uses the ArcGIS run FEMA Viewer:




This video also is helpful in identifying the different kinds of floodplains, an overview of Property ID flood maps, and how they may be used to identify what these changes mean to property owners in Klamath County:

I would venture to say that these two tools are useful for existing structures for sure. It also gives a clear picture of the risks and expectations in developing flood prone areas. The question of whether or not current land uses are appropriate is a deeper question. Zone A development is based on 1 percent chance annual flood event, so a homeowner or developer is always playing the odds. I personally would never want to live or build in a flood zone, but others are willing to take the risk for location. As compared to some east coast and southern regions, the Klamath, given its length, is not especially prone to floods, and those where it is possible are unsurprising, near the Pacific where tide can intensify flooding, and in a lush river valley, where flooding can aid in the agricultural life of Seiad Valley.












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mapping the Klamath

This is a brief slideshow for our Map Your Watershed assignment for Watershed Stewardship at Virginia Tech. Also below see a fun interactive watershed mapping program called River Runner . You can drop a raindrop anywhere in your watershed (or anywhere in the world for that matter and watch its flow). The first is from Upper Klamath Lake to the Pacific Ocean, and the second is from Crater Lake to the ocean. Enjoy! https://river-runner.samlearner.com/?lng=-121.93014360470823&lat=42.43474703092204 https://river-runner.samlearner.com/?lng=-122.10710892006037&lat=42.92410178283885
Read more

Features and Characteristics of the Klamath Basin

Image
  I am not a geologist, but I am fascinated how landscapes were formed. One cannot examine the Klamath River’s features and characteristics without looking at how it began. Alex Schwartz, of Herald and News (who has a better understanding of geology) is quoted here: "Around 20 million years ago, North America began to stretch like taffy. The Earth’s crust expanded into what is now the Great Basin, forming thousands of parallel cracks running north to south. As the stretched crust became thinner, heat from the Earth’s mantle pushed the fractured land upward, and it rose and fell along the small fault lines. This formed a vast network of mountain ranges and valleys called the “basin and range” that stretches from south central Oregon all the way to New Mexico. This short video from the National Park Service shows how the basin and range was formed:                                        About 13 million years later, the oceanic Juan De Fuca Plate slid beneath the North America
Read more

Driving the Klamath (Equipment Research)

I had the time and good fortune to drive most of the length of the Klamath River last Saturday. It was a long road, and I was pretty fried by the end, but so glad I did it. Once you get up to the dams, it becomes harder and windier to make it all the way to Klamath Falls and the lakes, so sadly I ran out of time. But made it 195 miles of 257.  I decided to lightly explore my drive through a story map. I know that ESRI has updated its StoryMaps to ARCGIS, but I decided to dip my toe with the old version. Much monitoring is done through mapping software. I have used Avenza for other projects on this course, and I love the layering capabilities, the global positioning on a map, and the ways to share monitoring photos and the like. Friends who do research and monitoring also use ARCGIS Field Maps. Story Maps is also a terrific tool for use in monitoring and stewardship/conservation storytelling with the ability to map a journey, share photos and leave notes. It's user friendly and much
Read more