Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data

Due to the effects of climate change coupled with increased urbanization, many cities will be experiencing more frequent and intense flooding in the future. As a result, it would be very beneficial for urban planners to have a low-cost and efficient modeling tool that can determine the flood risk at...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ray, Anushka
Other Authors: Fernández, John
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2023
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150182
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author Ray, Anushka
author2 Fernández, John
author_facet Fernández, John
Ray, Anushka
author_sort Ray, Anushka
collection MIT
description Due to the effects of climate change coupled with increased urbanization, many cities will be experiencing more frequent and intense flooding in the future. As a result, it would be very beneficial for urban planners to have a low-cost and efficient modeling tool that can determine the flood risk at a granular level such as the census tract. Boston is one such coastal urban city that will experience an increase in flooding. Since each census tract in Boston is unique and varies in population and land use, urban planners and policy makers must know which areas in Boston are the most vulnerable to provide them with resources. This research proposes a machine learning based model that evaluates the flood risk of census tracts in Boston. The overall flood risk of a census tract is determined by aggregating relevant features such as land cover data from aerial satellite imagery via semantic segmentation methods, elevation, slope, and flow accumulation. In addition to these flood hazard features, we also integrate flood vulnerability features from socioeconomic data and building information for each census tract.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1501822023-04-01T03:58:49Z Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data Ray, Anushka Fernández, John Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Due to the effects of climate change coupled with increased urbanization, many cities will be experiencing more frequent and intense flooding in the future. As a result, it would be very beneficial for urban planners to have a low-cost and efficient modeling tool that can determine the flood risk at a granular level such as the census tract. Boston is one such coastal urban city that will experience an increase in flooding. Since each census tract in Boston is unique and varies in population and land use, urban planners and policy makers must know which areas in Boston are the most vulnerable to provide them with resources. This research proposes a machine learning based model that evaluates the flood risk of census tracts in Boston. The overall flood risk of a census tract is determined by aggregating relevant features such as land cover data from aerial satellite imagery via semantic segmentation methods, elevation, slope, and flow accumulation. In addition to these flood hazard features, we also integrate flood vulnerability features from socioeconomic data and building information for each census tract. M.Eng. 2023-03-31T14:38:05Z 2023-03-31T14:38:05Z 2023-02 2023-02-27T18:43:24.795Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150182 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Ray, Anushka
Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data
title Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data
title_full Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data
title_fullStr Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data
title_full_unstemmed Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data
title_short Machine Learning Based Flood Risk Modeling Using Features from Satellite, Socioeconomic, Geographic, and Building Data
title_sort machine learning based flood risk modeling using features from satellite socioeconomic geographic and building data
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150182
work_keys_str_mv AT rayanushka machinelearningbasedfloodriskmodelingusingfeaturesfromsatellitesocioeconomicgeographicandbuildingdata