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Depth grids for floodplain flood attenuation baseline and counterfactual scenarios in the Schuylkill River watershed, Pennsylvania

2023 - U S Geological Survey


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ABSTRACT
As part of a study to quantify floodplain flood attenuation ecosystem services, datasets were developed representing a baseline (current floodplain condition) and counterfactual (floodplain flood storage removed) scenario for 18 sites in the Schuylkill River Watershed, Pennsylvania. This data release contains rasters (3-m resolution) of baseline and counterfactual flood depth grids for the 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, 0.04, 0.02, and 0.01 annual exceedance probability (AEP) scenarios in the Schuylkill River Watershed, Pennsylvania. Depth grid raster datasets were used as input for riverine flood modeling in the Federal Emergency Management Agency HAZUS Program to estimate damages to buildings under various flood intensities. The HAZUS Program is a tool to estimate damages and associated losses due to natural disasters like floods. The data release also contains polyline shapefiles of (1) six floodplain storage volume cross-sections for the 0.01 AEP baseline scenario flood inundation boundary at each USGS streamgage of interest and (2) water surface cross-sections extending across all areas of interest inundation boundaries based on the 0.01 counterfactual scenario boundary. Floodplain storage volume cross-sectional lines (Schuylkill_Volume_xns) were used in the approximation of average floodplain flood water storage capacity of each area of interest. Water surface cross-sections (Schuylkill_DepthGrid_xns) were used for water surface interpolation in depth grid processing