Galen Newman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe group\u2019s findings are widely relevant because 39 percent of the U.S. population resides in coastal counties, and more than 600 million people live in coastal regions near sea level.<\/p>\n
\u201cSea level rise due to climate change makes coastal populations more susceptible to flood risk,\u201d said Newman. \u201cThe use of land change prediction modeling to inform scenario-based planning has been shown to help deal with uncertainties in urbanization such as urban growth and flood risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
To arrive at their findings, Newman\u2019s team used a land transformation model that combines geographic information system data \u2014 which allows users to analyze and understand spatial relationships, patterns and trends \u2014 with a neural network, a statistical data modeling tool.<\/p>\n
They applied the land transformation model to three different urban growth scenarios in Tampa:<\/p>\n
\u2022 growth based on the city\u2019s current growth patterns;<\/p>\n
\u2022 growth based on the city\u2019s current land use plan, and<\/p>\n
\u2022 growth based on future development occurring outside the projected floodplain.<\/p>\n
With land use projections in hand, the researchers created master development plans for each scenario with NOAA\u2019s projected, climate change-based floodplain levels. They assessed each master plan\u2019s projected flood risk and pollutant discharge with a long-term hydrologic impact analysis model, which estimates the impact of a given area\u2019s land use changes.<\/p>\n
Newman\u2019s research partners were Youjung Kim, now an assistant professor at Concordia University, Karishma Joshi \u201820, now an associate landscape designer at Carducci Associates, and Jiali Liu \u201920.<\/p>\n
The project was funded by the Texas A&M Office of the Vice President for Research as part of the university\u2019s ongoing commitment to the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stark differences in flooding and pollution in different urban growth scenarios were detailed in a study by urban planning professor Galen Newman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landscape-architecture-urban-planning","category-research-innovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Texas A&M planning prof finds reduced flood risk in alternate land use plan<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n