UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles What’s the Dam Problem? Hazardous Dams, Flood Risk, and Dimensions of Vulnerability in California A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Urban and Regional Planning by Britta McOmber 2018 © Copyright by Britta McOmber 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS What’s the Dam Problem? Hazardous Dams, Flood Risk, and Dimensions of Vulnerability in California by Britta McOmber Master of Urban and Regional Planning University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Susanna B. Hecht, Chair In the state of California, dams are aging, underfinanced, and in many cases ill-maintained. The Oroville Dam Spillway Failure in February 2017 demonstrates that even dams with satisfactory condition ratings can be at risk of failing from a combination of climatic, political, economic, and structural factors. It is therefore necessary to look beyond the condition assessment of a dam and instead consider the hazard potential status. California has 833 High Hazard Potential (HHP) dams – which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defines as dams that would cause significant loss of life, property destruction, or environmental damage in the case of failure or misoperation (2016). Expanding on previous literature on the sociodemographic determinants of flood-risk in cases of sea-level rise, climate change, high precipitation, and storm events, this project analyzes variables of social vulnerability within HHP dam inundation boundaries. I rely on a series of ii geostatistical analyses, two-tail independent samples statistical tests, and multiple linear regressions to answer the overarching research question – Who is most vulnerable to dam- induced floods in California? The data underpinning this research comes from the National Inventory of Dams, statewide dam inundation boundary maps, and the 2012 -2016 American Community Survey.
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