RESEARCH DATA USED IN THE LIVABILITY TOOL

Modeler(s): Ashik Islam, Stefan Hoops, Henning Mortveit
Model: HEC-RAS 2D

Model inputs: Flood data with flood depth (meters) relative to a geo-reference (e.g., block group shapefile). The methods are agnostic to the source of the flooding (e.g., storm surge, rainfall).

Model outputs: The model will show flood impacts on relative response time for emergency personnel (e.g., ambulance/firetruck) for each residence location.

Display in the Livability Tool: The flood and transportation data will be linked to census block-level and block group-level for mapping. 

Smallest scale of model outputs: Parcel/residence location

Limitations/caveats: The estimated relative impacts do not take into account some factors.
Blocked culverts may cause model estimates to underestimate impacts in some regions. Roads may be slightly elevated compared to nearby terrain and may also have ditches and draining to lessen impact of inundation. This makes the model estimates somewhat more severe in some regions.