Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item The effects of flood zone designations on land development(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2024) Poteet, Samantha Joy; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Nick HagertyIn 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Harris County, Texas and caused devastating flood damages. These flood damages were exacerbated by a rapid land development. This paper estimates the impact of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) high risk flood zone designation, the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), on land development. FEMA's flood maps convey information to homeowners regarding their property's flood risk and requires flood insurance for most properties in the SFHA. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design I find evidence of a 64% decrease in land development just inside of the SFHA boundary line. These results suggest FEMA can significantly impact the allocation of land development with the SFHA designation. Currently, FEMA underestimates flood risk, accurately assessing flood risk can help better prepare homeowners for future flooding events and allocate future land development in a more socially optimal way.Item Understanding the effects of floodplain shade on hyporheic and stream channel temperature cycles(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2024) Fogg, Sarah Kathleen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Geoffrey C. Poole; This is a manuscript style paper that includes co-authored chapters.River reaches with coarse-grained alluvial floodplains have a breadth of lateral interaction between the channel and surrounding landscape, yielding extensive riparian zones and high rates of gross water exchange between the channel and substrate (i.e., hyporheic exchange). The lateral hyporheic zone on floodplain rivers is often near the ground surface, allowing for heat exchange between the atmosphere, unsaturated sediments, and hyporheic zone. We hypothesized that floodplain shade overlying lateral hyporheic water influences the conductive heat flux through unsaturated sediments, thus influencing hyporheic temperatures and temperatures in associated stream channels. We conducted simulation modeling experiments to test the potential effects of floodplain shade on hyporheic and stream channel temperatures. We found that scenarios with floodplain shade led to cooler hyporheic and stream temperatures than scenarios lacking floodplain shade under a variety of realistic floodplain conditions. We conclude that floodplain forest shade is a novel consideration for riparian management on floodplain river reaches and may be crucial in managing and maintaining cold-water habitat into the future.