Flood Susceptibility Modeling in Saluda and Congaree Watersheds in the Edisto Santee Region

Keywords: Flood susceptibility, Climate change, Flood Indicators, Flood modelling, Edisto Santee, Congaree River,Watershed, Saluda River Watershed, Congaree National Park,
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 6

Abstract

Floods remain one of the devasting hydro-meteorological disasters in the world that causes damages to human and ecological resources. Climate change and many other factors aggravate these complex and most times irremediable calamities which require advanced flood modeling techniques. The study model utilized fifteen flood contributing indicators with 176 and 315 current and former flooding points in Saluda River Watershed (SRW) and Congaree River Watershed (CRW) respectively. SRW revealed low susceptibility to flooding while CRW is more susceptible to flood. This implies that flood reoccurrence at a large magnitude could be possible in the CRW because many of the areas reveal very high to high flood risk susceptibility. The upper portion of the Congaree comprising the developed area, agriculture, and rock outcrop experiences more rainfall and is susceptible to flooding than the lower downstream where the Congaree National Park (CNP) is located. This implies that the CNP has a more functional river flow and could be a positive contributor to reducing the highly damaging effect of flood occurrences from upstream. The SRW sub-watershed such as the Lake Murray, Lower Reedy, and South Saluda reveal a very high susceptibility to flooding while Rabon Creek (experiences lowest rainfall) shows a low to medium level of susceptibility. The approach considered in this work can further be utilized with other models for flood assessments over a larger region. The flood susceptibility information will support early warning systems put in place in the study area to achieve the goals of flood mitigation and sustainable development.