Study of Elevation Role in Representing Sociodemographic Status and Susceptibility to Flooding in Birmingham, Alabama
Abstract
Flood events continue to disproportionately impact low-income and minority groups in Jefferson County, especially in the highly urbanized regions and other areas undergoing major land-use modifications. This paper analyzes the socio-demographic factors, such as race and income, which define the spatial distribution and vulnerability of the population residing in high flood-risk zones. 2D deterministic flood model and risk maps were developed for Jefferson County using HEC RAS and ArcGIS software, and the socio-demographic data were analyzed using JMP software. Correlation and regression data analysis show flash flooding impacts affluent and low-income neighborhoods. However, approximately 73% of the census tracts impacted by flooding are predominantly African American neighborhoods (85% and higher). A statistically significant positive correlation exists between the median household income (MHI) and the average elevation (AE). The White neighborhoods have a strong positive correlation with the AE and MHI correlation with AE and MHI. The median value of owned property units strongly correlates with MHI in the high flood-risk zones. At the same time, the median value of owned property units is moderately correlated with the AE levels in the high flood-risk zones. The correlation between AE and MHI for the median value of owner-occupied units shows an increasing trend with increasing property value. Similarly, higher educational attainment levels show a growing trend in income and AE, especially with those having a bachelor’s degree or higher education showing a positive association. Thus, recognizing these differences in the socio-demographic factors and their impact on perceived vulnerability can help address the disproportionate impact of flooding on the identified vulnerable groups and raise public awareness.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
ADECA (Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs). n.d. “Am I in a floodplain?” Accessed October 30, 2023. https://adeca.alabama.gov/floods/am-i-in-a-floodplain/.
ADECA (Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs). 2022. “AL flood risk information system.” Accessed June 24, 2022. https://alabamaflood.com/map.
AEMA (Alabama Emergency Management Agency). 2018. “State of Alabama mitigation plan draft.” Accessed September 9, 2020. https://ema.alabama.gov/2018/06/08/state-of-alabama-mitigation-plan-draft.
Alipour, A., A. Ahmadalipour, and H. Moradkhani. 2020. “Assessing flash flood hazard and damages in the south-east United States.” J. Flood Risk Manage. 13 (2): e12605. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12605.
Bates, P. D., et al. 2020. “Combined modelling of US fluvial, pluvial and coastal flood hazard under current and future climates.” Water Res. 57 (2): e2020WR028673. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028673.
Bonjour, R. 2019. “Flooding the cities: How land use policies contribute to climate gentrification.” Seton Hall Legislative J. 44 (1): 91–113.
Brunner, G. W. 2021. “HEC-RAS 2D user’s manual.” Accessed January 1, 2021. https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/rasdocs/r2dum/latest.
Bullard, R. 2008. “Differential vulnerabilities: Environmental and economic inequality and government response to unnatural disasters.” Soc. Res. Int. Q. 5 (3): 753–784.
Chetty, R., N. Hendren, M. Jones, and S. Porter. 2018. Race and economic opportunity in the united states: An intergenerational perspective. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w24441.
Christian, A. K., B. D. Dovie, W. Akpalu, and S. N. A. Codjoe. 2021. “Households’ socio-demographic characteristics, perceived and underestimated vulnerability to floods and related risk reduction in Ghana.” Urban Clim. 35 (Jan): 100759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100759.
Crowe, J. B. 2008. “Mountain Brook one of wealthiest communities in U.S. AL. Com.” Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.al.com/spotnews/2008/12/mountain_brook_one_of_us_wealt.html.
Davies, R. 2021. “Flash floods cause chaos in Alabama.” Flood List. Accessed June 15, 2022. https://floodlist.com/america/usa/flash-floods-alabama-july-2021.
Emrich, C. T., and S. L. Cutter. 2011. “Social vulnerability to climate-sensitive hazards in the Southern United States.” Weather, Climate, Society 3 (3): 193–208. https://doi.org/10.1175/2011WCAS1092.1.
EROS (Earth Resources Observation and Science). 2017. Elevation derivatives for national applications (EDNA) seamless three-dimensional hydrologic database. Washington, DC: USGS.
ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute). 2021. “ArcGIS Pro.” Accessed June 9, 2021. https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-pro/overview.
FEMA. 2001. “Birmingham, AL case study.” Accessed June 30, 2021. https://mitigation.eeri.org/case-studies/birmingham-al-case-study.
FEMA. 2021. “Coordinated needs management strategy.” Accessed October 23, 2023. https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/tools-resources/risk-map/coordinated-needs-management-strategy.
Finch, C., C. T. Emrich, and S. L. Cutter. 2010. “Disaster disparities and differential recovery in New Orleans.” Population Environ. 31 (4): 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-009-0099-8.
Fowlkes, A. 2019. “Gentrifying the magic city: A spatial analysis of Birmingham, AL 1980-2010.” Master thesis, Dept. of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State Univ.
Frank, T. 2021. “Floods are increasing in supposedly low-risk areas—Scientific American.” Accessed October 7, 2021. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/floods-are-increasing-in-supposedly-low-risk-areas/?ref=upstract.com&curator=upstract.com&utm_source=upstract.com.
Harlan, S. L., M. J. Sarango, E. A. Mack, and T. A. Stephens. 2019. “A survey-based assessment of perceived flood risk in urban areas of the United States.” Anthropocene 28 (Dec): 100217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100217.
Hodgkins, G. A., R. W. Dudley, S. A. Archfield, and B. Renard. 2019. “Effects of climate, regulation, and urbanization on historical flood trends in the United States.” J. Hydrol. 573 (Jun): 697–709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.03.102.
Hossain, M. K. 2017. “Flood risk assessment for the vulnerable populations and infrastructure: Village creek, Birmingham, Alabama.” Doctoral dissertation, Geology and Geography, Auburn Univ.
Hossain, M. K. 2020. “Spatial vulnerability analysis and thematic mapping of urban floods: A case study of 100-year floodplain areas of Birmingham, Alabama.” Theses and Dissertations, Dept. of Geosciences, Mississippi State Univ.
Hossain, M. K., and Q. Meng. 2020a. “A fine-scale spatial analytics of the assessment and mapping of buildings and population at different risk levels of urban flood.” Land Use Policy 99 (Dec): 104829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104829.
Hossain, M. K., and Q. Meng. 2020b. “A multi-decadal spatial analysis of demographic vulnerability to urban flood: A case study of Birmingham City, USA.” Sustainability 12 (21): 9139. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12219139.
JMP Statistical Discovery. n.d. “Multiple linear regression.” Accessed June 10, 2022.” https://www.jmp.com/en_au/statistics-knowledge-portal/what-is-multiple-regression.html.
Kammerbauer, M., and C. Wamsler. 2017. “Social inequality and marginalization in post-disaster recovery: Challenging the consensus?” Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 24 (Sep): 411–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.06.019.
Karunarathne, A. Y., and G. Lee. 2020. “Developing a multi-facet social vulnerability measure for flood disasters at the micro-level assessment.” Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 49 (Oct): 101679. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101679.
Khajehei, S., A. Ahmadalipour, W. Shao, and H. Moradkhani. 2020. “A place-based assessment of flash flood hazard and vulnerability in the contiguous United States.” Sci. Rep. 10 (1): 448. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57349-z.
Khullar, D., and D. Chokshi. 2018. “Health, income, & poverty: Where we are & what could help.” Accessed June 9, 2021. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20180817.901935/full/?source=soc-WB-team-fb-rollout-20191009.
Knighton, J., K. Hondula, C. Sharkus, C. Guzman, and R. Elliott. 2021. “Flood risk behaviors of United States riverine metropolitan areas are driven by local hydrology and shaped by race.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 118 (13): e2016839118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016839118.
Krvavica, N., and J. Rubinić. 2020. “Evaluation of design storms and critical rainfall durations for flood prediction in partially urbanized catchments.” Water 12 (7): 2044. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12072044.
Lago, S., D. Cantarero, B. Rivera, M. Pascual, C. Blázquez-Fernández, B. Casal, and F. Reyes. 2018. “Socio-economic status, health inequalities and non-communicable diseases: A systematic review.” J. Public Health 26 (1): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0850-z.
Lee, K. G., and T. S. Hedgecock. 2006. Simulation of flood profiles for Fivemile creek at Tarrant, Alabama. Washington, DC: USGS.
Mach, K. J., C. M. Kraan, M. Hino, A. R. Siders, E. M. Johnston, and C. B. Field. 2019. “Managed retreat through voluntary buyouts of flood-prone properties.” Sci. Adv. 5 (10): eaax8995. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax8995.
Microsoft. 2017. “US building footprints: Computer generated building footprints for the United States.” Accessed June 6, 2021. https://github.com/Microsoft/USBuildingFootprints.
MRLC (Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium). n.d. “Multi-resolution land characteristics.” Accessed June 6, 2022. https://www.mrlc.gov/.
National Weather Service. n.d. “Flash flooding definition (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Trans.).” Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.weather.gov/phi/FlashFloodingDefinition.
NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information). 2021. Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters: Summary stats. Asheville, NC: NCEI.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). n.d. NOAA ATLAS 14 Point precipitation frequency estimates: Alabama. Asheville, NC: NOAA.
Notaro, V., C. M. Fontanazza, G. La Loggia, and G. Freni. 2018. “Flood frequency analysis for an urban watershed: Comparison between several statistical methodologies simulating synthetic rainfall events.” J. Flood Risk Manage. 11 (Apr): S559–S574. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12283.
Ntelekos, A. A., M. Oppenheimer, J. A. Smith, and A. J. Miller. 2010. “Urbanization, climate change and flood policy in the United States.” Clim. Change 103 (3–4): 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9789-6.
NWS (National Weather Service). 2021. “NWS Alabama rainfall plot.” Accessed June 14, 2022. https://www.weather.gov/bmx/rainfallplots.
Obojes, N., et al. 2015. “Vegetation effects on the water balance of mountain grasslands depend on climatic conditions.” Ecohydrology 8 (4): 552–569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1524.
Oña, A., V. Strøm, B.-S. Lee, M. Le Fort, J. Middleton, C. Gutenbrunner, and D. Pacheco Barzallo. 2021. “Health inequalities and income for people with spinal cord injury. A comparison between and within countries.” SSM Popul. Health 15 (Sep): 100854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100854.
Pralle, S. 2018. “Drawing lines: FEMA and the politics of mapping flood zones.” Clim. Change 152 (Sep): 227–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2287-y.
SAS Institute Inc. 2022. “Discovering JMP 16.” Accessed November 13, 2021. https://www.jmp.com/en_us/about.html.
Tate, E., M. A. Rahman, C. T. Emrich, and C. C. Sampson. 2021. “Flood exposure and social vulnerability in the United States.” Natural Hazards 106 (1): 435–457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04470-2.
The City of Birmingham. n.d. “Floodplain management the official website for the city of Birmingham, Alabama.” Accessed June 6, 2021. Accessed June 6, 2021. https://www.birminghamal.gov/city-directory/planning-engineering-permits/floodplain-management/.
The Pew Charitable Trusts. 2016. “Flood risk and mitigation strategies for Alabama.” Accessed October 7, 2021. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2016/06/flood-risk-and-mitigation-strategies-for-alabama.
Thompson, C. M., and T. G. Frazier. 2014. “Deterministic and probabilistic flood modeling for contemporary and future coastal and inland precipitation inundation.” Appl. Geogr. 50 (Jun): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.01.013.
Tindal, M. 2021. “A sociophysonomic model of gentrification: Predicting neighborhood level demographic change in Birmingham, AL using social, physical, and economic indicators.” Master thesis, Dept. of City and Regional Planning, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Community.
Ueland, J., and B. Warf. 2010. “Racialized topographies: Altitude and race in southern cities.” Geogr. Rev. 96 (1): 50–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2006.tb00387.x.
US Census Bureau. 2021a. “Explore census data.” Accessed December 7, 2021. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/.
US Census Bureau. 2021b. “U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Birmingham city, Alabama.” Accessed February 10, 2021. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/birminghamcityalabama/PST045219.
USGS. 2014. “USGS current conditions for USGS 333205086493701 Precipitation Station 16th ST IN BIRMINGHAM, AL.” Accessed June 8, 2022. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/al/nwis/uv/?site_no=333205086493701&PARAmeter_cd=00045.
USGS. 2020. “USGS National Transportation Dataset (NTD) for Alabama 20211115 State or Territory Shapefile.” Accessed June 10, 2022. https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/usgs-national-transportation-dataset-ntd-for-alabama-20211115-state-or-territory-shapefile.
Waters, J., and W. N. Adger. 2017. “Spatial, network and temporal dimensions of the determinants of adaptive capacity in poor urban areas.” Global Environ. Change 46 (Sep): 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.06.011.
Wing, O. E. J., P. D. Bates, A. M. Smith, C. C. Sampson, K. A. Johnson, J. Fargione, and P. Morefield. 2018. “Estimates of present and future flood risk in the conterminous United States.” Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (3): 034023. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaac65.
Zavar, E., and L. A. Fischer. 2021. “Fractured landscapes: The racialization of home buyout programs and climate adaptation.” Curr. Res. Environ. Sustainability 3 (Apr): 100043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2021.100043.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Natural Hazards Review
Volume 25 • Issue 4 • November 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 4, 2023
Accepted: Mar 19, 2024
Published online: Jul 8, 2024
Published in print: Nov 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Dec 8, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Correlation
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Distribution functions
- Economic factors
- Engineering fundamentals
- Floods
- Infrastructure
- Mathematical functions
- Mathematics
- Models (by type)
- Natural disasters
- Practice and Profession
- Residential location
- Social factors
- Spatial distribution
- Statistics
- Two-dimensional models
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
- Water and water resources
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.