Impacts of zoning policies on flood and water quality: An integrated assessment modelling application


TitleImpacts of zoning policies on flood and water quality: An integrated assessment modelling application
Publication TypeConference Paper and Presentation
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsTsai, Y-S, Mohammed, IN, Turnbull, S, Zia, A, Bomblies, A
Conference Name2015 World Environmental & Water Resources Congress
Date Published2015/05
Conference LocationAustin, TX
Abstract

Historically Vermont local towns have taken an active role in land use planning and zoning, resulting into distinct zoning policies across towns. In this study, we apply a cascading integrated assessment model (CIAM) to examine the impacts of zoning policies on flood and nutrient transport and consequently the impacts of flood and nutrient loadings on human decisions for land use in the western parts of the Missisquoi Watershed, Vermont. The CIAM is developed to account for dynamic land use characteristics in modeling hydrological variability, heterogeneity and nonlinearity in landowners’ land use decisions under different socio-economic scenarios, and feedback of hydrological responses to landowners’ socioeconomic conditions. The CIAM consists of two core components: the interactive land-use transition agent-based model (ILUTABM) and the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys). The ILUTABM simulates heterogeneity in land use decisions at parcel levels by differentiating decision making processes for agricultural and urban landowners. A landowner is expected to make decisions given his expected utility with respect to different underlying socio-economic drivers given the landowner category and the characteristics of his landholdings. These attributes of the land include but not limited to the neighboring land use, zoning rules, current use, soil, slope and elevation. The landowners determine the optimal locations in which a specific land use transition occurs based on a logistic function given the attributes of a landholding. A stepwise optimization scheme is then used to calibrate the ILUTABM. The RHESSys is physical-based watershed model that uses a hierarchical spatial framework to simulate runoff, snow, soil and vegetation processes. It is expected that different zoning policies in different towns lead to different hydrological responses in terms of occurrences and intensities of peak flow.

URLhttp://submissions.mirasmart.com/ASCE/EWRI2015/Itinerary/ConferenceMatrixEventDetail.asp?id=4
Status: 
Published
Attributable Grant: 
RACC
Grant Year: 
Year5 StatusChanged
Acknowledged VT EPSCoR: 
Ack-Yes