- Urban Resilience: The Optimization of Sustainable Urban Stormwater Management
Growing urbanization and increased rainfall from climate change are compounding to create high flood risks for urban areas. As the University of British Columbia looks to create a sustainable campus, there are emerging questions of how to improve its stormwater resilience and reduce future flooding. This project uses a GIS rainfall-runoff analysis to assess the comparative performance of potential green infrastructures on campus. By optimizing the design and implementation of green infrastructures, campus planning can successfully enhance UBC’s stormwater resilience, mitigating the combined effects of urbanization and climate change.
- Managing Shifting Precipitation Regimes: Sustainable Stormwater Management at University of British Columbia
In response to growing concerns about climate change, recent studies have investigated the climate change impact on shifting precipitation and storm events. This study expands on this body of work through various analyses using the data from the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and UBC Abacus Data Network to understand the effects of shifting precipitation regime on green infrastructure management at the UBC Point Grey campus. Results showed that the existing green infrastructure at UBC is not designed to handle large volumes of precipitation, leading to flooding and erosion risks. This highlights the need for sustainable stormwater management practices that consider each location’s unique characteristics. Several recommendations were made, such as balancing permeable and impermeable surfaces, installing and upgrading green roofs and other green infrastructure, and recording and updating related climate data and performance.
- Wildfire and Geomorphic Events From Landsat
Around the world, the frequency and intensity of wildfire events are rapidly increasing. Such a trend increasingly exposes some communities to the risk of the secondary hazards of wildfire, such as post-wildfire geomorphic events like a landslide and debris flow. To better manage the risk imposed by the secondary hazards of wildfire, a better understanding of the relationship between wildfire activities and the geomorphic events related therewith is necessary. In this paper, the temporal relationship between past wildfire events and the frequency of two different types of geomorphic events (landslides and debris flow) was studied statistically through the conduction of a time series analysis.
- Wildfire and Geomorphic Change from LiDAR
Wildfires remove vegetation and alter soil conditions resulting in increased susceptibility of ground surfaces to erosion, especially over periods of heavy precipitation. Geomorphic changes that are influenced by wildfire occurrence can evolve into hazardous natural events like landslides and flows that pose the risk of human fatality and costly infrastructural damage. We compare light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data time series to identify and compare landscape geomorphic change in burned and unburned areas in the William’s Lake area of the Cariboo Region of British Columbia following the 2017 wildfires.
- Identifying and Categorizing Pond Types from LiDAR
The Rangeland Department in the Kamloops District from the Government of British Columbia has recently raised concerns regarding the observation on the reduction of the number and the surface area of the grassland ponds in the Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area. This study aims to distinguish between the ponds with stable groundwater inputs (i.e. connected ponds) and the ponds with unstable groundwater inputs (i.e. perched ponds) to assist the government in determining reliable water sources.
Growing urbanization and increased rainfall from climate change are compounding to create high flood risks for urban areas. As the University of British Columbia looks to create a sustainable campus, there are emerging questions of how to improve its stormwater resilience and reduce future flooding. This project uses a GIS rainfall-runoff analysis to assess the comparative performance of potential green infrastructures on campus. By optimizing the design and implementation of green infrastructures, campus planning can successfully enhance UBC’s stormwater resilience, mitigating the combined effects of urbanization and climate change.
In response to growing concerns about climate change, recent studies have investigated the climate change impact on shifting precipitation and storm events. This study expands on this body of work through various analyses using the data from the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and UBC Abacus Data Network to understand the effects of shifting precipitation regime on green infrastructure management at the UBC Point Grey campus. Results showed that the existing green infrastructure at UBC is not designed to handle large volumes of precipitation, leading to flooding and erosion risks. This highlights the need for sustainable stormwater management practices that consider each location’s unique characteristics. Several recommendations were made, such as balancing permeable and impermeable surfaces, installing and upgrading green roofs and other green infrastructure, and recording and updating related climate data and performance.
Around the world, the frequency and intensity of wildfire events are rapidly increasing. Such a trend increasingly exposes some communities to the risk of the secondary hazards of wildfire, such as post-wildfire geomorphic events like a landslide and debris flow. To better manage the risk imposed by the secondary hazards of wildfire, a better understanding of the relationship between wildfire activities and the geomorphic events related therewith is necessary. In this paper, the temporal relationship between past wildfire events and the frequency of two different types of geomorphic events (landslides and debris flow) was studied statistically through the conduction of a time series analysis.
Wildfires remove vegetation and alter soil conditions resulting in increased susceptibility of ground surfaces to erosion, especially over periods of heavy precipitation. Geomorphic changes that are influenced by wildfire occurrence can evolve into hazardous natural events like landslides and flows that pose the risk of human fatality and costly infrastructural damage. We compare light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data time series to identify and compare landscape geomorphic change in burned and unburned areas in the William’s Lake area of the Cariboo Region of British Columbia following the 2017 wildfires.
The Rangeland Department in the Kamloops District from the Government of British Columbia has recently raised concerns regarding the observation on the reduction of the number and the surface area of the grassland ponds in the Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area. This study aims to distinguish between the ponds with stable groundwater inputs (i.e. connected ponds) and the ponds with unstable groundwater inputs (i.e. perched ponds) to assist the government in determining reliable water sources.