Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2008NV135B

Flood Warning System for the Clark County Wetlands Park

Institute: Nevada
Year Established: 2008 Start Date: 2008-03-01 End Date: 2009-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $33,236 Total Non-Federal Funds: $66,472

Principal Investigators: Thomas Piechota

Abstract: Proposed herein is a two-year research project that will develop an integrated flood warning system for the Clark County Wetland Park located in the Las Vegas Valley. The Clark County Wetlands Park is located adjacent to the Las Vegas Wash and is an invaluable environmental resource. The facility is open to the public with various walking trails; however, there is potential for the facility to be inundated with flood waters during significant rainfall events. The proposed research project seeks to integrate the rich sources of data (rainfall and GIS) available in Clark County to develop the Wetlands Advanced Inundation Threat System (WAITS) that will be able to (1) predict when the Wetlands Park may flood using real time and historical rainfall data; (2) be used to make assessments of flooding at the Wetlands Park for various hypothetical storms; (3) and can be used for future development into Las Vegas Valley wide flood forecasting system. The basis for the system will be a series of hydrologic and hydraulic models that will be integrated within a Geographic Information System (GIS) to provide seamless exchange of data and the flood inundation mapping.