UrbDP 598G Floodplain Management and Planning for River Communities
Autumn 2005
3 credits
MW 4:30-5:50
110 Gould Hall
Instructors: Bob Freitag, Director, UW Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research
Frank Westerlund, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Design and Planning
Introduction
This course will present a comprehensive treatment of floodplains, the management of floodplain resources, risks and opportunities, and planning for communities within floodplains and along rivers. The geographic focus will be largely but not exclusively on the Puget Sound region. The course will primarily address riverine floodplains, with some attention given to coastal flood hazards and the current disaster in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
We will study rivers and floodplains within the context of watersheds and hydrologic systems, from five interconnected perspectives: (1) as a dynamic physical system transporting water, sediment and chemicals that responds and adjusts over time to tectonic, climatic and anthropogenic changes; (2) as a biological system supporting life; (3) as a hazard having the potential to cause destruction and loss of life related to vulnerable human occupancy and use of a floodplain; (4) as an amenity having historical, cultural, aesthetic and recreational values; and (5) as a policy sphere--and at times a policy battleground--within local, regional, state and national planning and resource management.
Using local floodplain community case studies, students will work individually or in small teams to investigate ways to preserve and restore natural system functions and values, enhance amenities, and support sustainable human use, while mitigating hazard and risks.
This course is an experimental offering. The instructors were asked to develop this course for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which plans to place it on their higher education website and make it available to other universities.
Course Schedule
W Sep 28 Course introduction. Lenses through which we view river corridors and floodplains. Professional cultures related to floodplain management.
M Oct 3 River and stream systems on dynamic earth. Effects of tectonics, glaciation, erosion on stream systems and their production, transport and deposition of sediment.
W Oct 5 Western Washington rivers-their geological history and evolution as dynamic physical systems.
M Oct 10 Land use/land cover change and its effects on river system dynamics. Reconstructing the historic riverine landscape of the Puget Sound lowland. Assignment: profiling watersheds, river corridors, and localized river segments for case study communities.
W Oct 12 Guest speaker(s): Bob Aldridge, Snohomish County Public Works and/or Mike McCallister, Snohomish County Emergency Management.
M Oct17 Presentation of assignments, discussion.
W Oct19 Introduction to ecological principles; ecoregions, stream and river ecology.
Sat Oct 22 Rafting?/field trip
M Oct 24 Land use/land cover change and its effects on stream ecology, water quality. Ecological system change in Western Washington river corridors. Assignment: profiling the biologic framework of rivers for case communities.
W Oct 26 Concepts of hazard and risk, emergency management, mitigation.
M Oct 31 FEMA's HAZUS program for hazard analysis and risk assessment (demo)
W Nov 2 Presentation of assignments, discussion
M Oct 7 Midterm quiz. Assignment: hazard/risk assessment for case study communities
W Oct 9 Open day for work on assignments
M Oct 14 Presentation of assignments, discussion
W Oct 16 History of floodplain and river corridor management
M Oct 21 Public policy related to floodplains and rivers, federal and state levels; new policy directions.
W Oct 23 Public policy and regulation, local level. Assignment: developing planning solutions for case study communities.
M Oct 28 Riverfront urban design and historic preservation issues and approaches; enhancing human use and amenities.
W Oct 30 Ecological restoration of river corridors and floodplains.
M Dec 5 Integrative approaches
W Dec 7 Assignment presentations, discussion
M Dec 12 Assignment presentations, discussion and course wrap-up
Grading will be based on the case study assignments, participation in discussions, and a mid-quarter quiz.