Economic Analysis of Alternative Flood Control Measures by Digital Computer

Authors

Thomas M. Rachford, University of Kentucky

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to develop a digital computer program for selecting the optimum combination of flood proofing, flood-plain land use, channel improvement, and residual flood damage for a given floodplain. Based on economic efficiency, the optimum policy is selected for each planning unit of the total flood-plain for each period of time called a planning stage. The program was written in Fortran IV for the IBM 7040 and the University of Kentucky Computing Center compiler. The program requires about 23,000 words of core storage and about 30 seconds of execution time per planning-unit-stage for typical conditions. The program is not intended to furnish a finished design but is intended to select the optimum combination of flood control measures and residual flooding with regard to both time and space.

The program was used to test the sensitivity of the optimum combination of measures to variation in discount rate, right-of-way value, population projections, value of open space amenities, adversion to large annual variation in flood damage, costs of restricting flood-plain land use, costs of flood proofing, and costs of channel improvements. It was also used to analyze the effectiveness of land use, flood proofing, and channel improvement used individually and in various combinations. Program development and sensitivity studies were based on data previously collected for the Morrison Creek Watershed near Sacramento, California.

Publication Date

1966

Report Number

1

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/kwrri.rr.01

Funding Information

The work done on this project was directed by Dr. L. Douglas James, principal investigator of Project Number A-001-KY, sponsored by the University of Kentucky Water Resources Institute. The work upon which this publication is based was supported in part by funds provided by the United States Department of the Interior as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, Public Law 88-379.

Repository Citation

Rachford, Thomas M., "Economic Analysis of Alternative Flood Control Measures by Digital Computer" (1966). KWRRI Research Reports. 192.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kwrri_reports/192