This repository documents an advanced study combining hydraulic modeling and social vulnerability analysis to assess the impacts of Hurricane Helene on river dynamics in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. The research focuses on five major river systems: the French Broad, Swannanoa, Nolichucky, Upper French Broad, and Pigeon Rivers.
Simulate Flood Inundation: Utilize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' HEC-RAS 2D model to simulate streamflow and generate high-resolution flood inundation maps.
Integrate Social Vulnerability: Fuse flood hazard outputs with Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) data to identify communities at heightened risk.
Support Emergency Response: Produce actionable, impact-based flood risk maps to assist regional forecasters and emergency managers in resource allocation and response planning.
Advance Methodologies: Demonstrate the critical importance of coupling hydrodynamic modeling with socio-demographic data for effective disaster preparedness in mountainous terrains.
Modeling & Simulation HEC-RAS 2D: For detailed hydrodynamic modeling.
NOAA National Water Model (NWM): For streamflow data.
Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND): For preliminary flood extent mapping.
Geospatial Data Digital Elevation Models (DEMs): High-resolution terrain data.
National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus) & SWORD: River and stream data for the study area.
USGS Gauge Station Data: Real-time and historical water level data for model calibration.
Landslide Data: Information on Hurricane Helene-related landslides.
Satellite Imagery: Landsat 8-9 & Sentinel-2 for pre/post-event analysis.
Social & Infrastructure Data Social Vulnerability Index (SVI): Raster datasets for indicators like poverty and age.
Transportation Data: Road and bridge networks.
Small Dams: Locations of small, unregulated dams identified via Google Earth Pro.
High-Resolution Flood Inundation Maps: Detailed spatial representations of flood depths and extents.
Impact-Based Flood Risk Maps: Overlaid visualizations of flood hazards and social vulnerability.
Hydro-geospatial Data Library: A curated collection of all datasets used in the study.
Integrated Assessment Framework: The methodology for combining hydrodynamic and social data.
We welcome collaboration on this project. If you have data, expertise, or resources related to the study area, please reach out. We are particularly interested in:
High-water mark data and field observations from the Hurricane Helene event.
Additional drone or LiDAR data for the affected regions.
Expertise in social vulnerability analysis and emergency management.
Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.