Date of Completion
2025
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Environmental Sciences
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Daniel Erickson
Second Advisor
Rebecca Manners Diehl
Third Advisor
Julia Perdrial
Keywords
Vermont, flooding, flood mitigation, nature-based solutions, geospatial analysis, green infrastructure
Abstract
In the summers of 2023 and 2024, Vermont experienced repeated disastrous and historic flooding consistent with a changing climate, emphasizing both the growing challenge and growing need for developing flood resilient communities. This study aimed to summarize the impacts of climate change on flooding and the likelihood of continuing and worsening flood events, as well as the impacts of flooding and existing methods used to control and mitigate floods and flood damage. The main goals of the study were to synthesize current understanding of these flooding events in the context of climate change and response strategies within Vermont, identify the importance of a place-based approach to mitigation practices, and demonstrate the value of geospatial analysis to guide focus and inform decisions in environmental management. Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, and Montpelier, the capital of Vermont in the Northeastern United states, were selected as contrasting case studies to demonstrate the practical relevance of this review. Spatial analysis was done in ArcGIS Pro to compare the amounts and locations of impervious surfaces and green spaces in downtown areas with flood risk extents. Copenhagen deals primarily with pluvial flooding from cloudburst events and is the more urbanized of the two cities, with more impervious surfaces in high priority flood zones than green spaces, and therefore focuses on storing or redirecting water with innovative stormwater management practices. Montpelier deals mainly with fluvial flooding from the Winooski River and has a downtown area of highly concentrated impervious surfaces directly along the river surrounded by greener more rural areas, and while the city could see some benefits from increased green stormwater management, the most effective mitigation measures will likely take place further upstream in the floodplain. The contrast between these two case studies illustrates the complexity of environmental issues like flooding, and emphasizes the importance of a place-based understanding for creating flood mitigation practices that are well suited to the landscape in which they occur.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Rizzo, Sammi, "FLOODING IN VERMONT: A SYNTHESIS OF IMPACTS AND RESPONSES, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF A PLACE-BASED APPROACH FOR MITIGATION" (2025). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 753.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/753
. Map showing impervious surfaces that overlap with the FEMA 100yr flood extent.
Figure3.jpg (495 kB)
Map showing vegetation that overlaps with the FEMA 100yr flood extent.
Figure4.jpg (55 kB)
A zoomed in view of the impervious surfaces in the flood extent of downtown Montpelier shown in Figure 2.
Figure5.jpg (66 kB)
A zoomed in view of the green spaces in the flood extent of downtown Montpelier shown in Figure 3.
Figure6.jpg (638 kB)
Map showing impervious surfaces that overlap with flash flood extent in Copenhagen.
Figure7.jpg (627 kB)
Map showing vegetation that overlaps with flash flood extent in Copenhagen.
Figure8.jpg (93 kB)
A zoomed in view of the impervious surfaces in the flood extent of Copenhagen shown in Figure 6, with the high priority flood management area inside the red border and the medium/low priority area outside it.
Figure9.jpg (95 kB)
A zoomed in view of the green spaces in the flood extent of Copenhagen shown in Figure 7, with the high priority flood management area inside the red border and the medium/low priority area outside it.