Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2015DC173B

Evaluating Impacts of Urban Water Ways on the Transportation Networks for the District of Columbia

Institute: District of Columbia
Year Established: 2015 Start Date: 2015-03-01 End Date: 2016-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $10,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $19,600

Principal Investigators: Yao Yu

Project Summary: This research will collect, integrate and utilize all sources of available information about extreme wet-weather events, urban water way in the district, elevations of flood plain and local transportation infrastructure to evaluate the impact of urban water way on local transportation infrastructure under extreme events. Transportation infrastructure has been typically developed under the assumption that climate and weather patterns remain constant through its service life. However, under climate change scenario, there is a need to analyze the interaction between urban water ways and transportation infrastructure from not only public safety view point but also operation and maintenance of transportation systems. The research will generate digital maps to present flood-prone transportation infrastructure in Federal Triangle area under extreme weather events with various return periods. Based on these digital maps, this project will further develop methodology framework for local transportation infrastructure vulnerability assessment. These vulnerability assessment results can be useful to local agencies decision making including asset management, project planning and adaption strategy development. The preliminary results of this seed grant will be utilized to develop proposals for extramural funding.