Susan Schwartz: Using Modeling Flood Hazards in Geologic Hazards at University of California Santa Cruz
About this Course
Geologic Hazards is a mid-level undergraduate course primarily for Earth and Planetary Sciences or Environmental Sciences/Studies majors. It investigates a variety of geologic hazards including active faults, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides.
20
students
Three, 65 minute classes per week
Syllabus (Microsoft Word 38kB May10 19)
The recognition, evaluation, and mitigation of geologic hazards: earthquakes and faulting, tsunamis, volcanism, landslides and mass movements, and flooding.
The goals of this class are for students to learn the basic science underlying a variety of geologic hazards and to be able to apply quantitative analysis methods to their hazard assessment. After taking this class students will be able to:
1. Identify the geomorphic expression of active faults and landslides in air photos, topographic maps and other remote imagery.
2. Compute the Safety Factor to determine slope stability.
3. Understand the factors that control peak ground acceleration during earthquakes.
4. Create flood inundation maps for a given flow rate using a hydraulic model.
5. Identify patterns in geophysical time-series and distinguish anomalies preceding and synchronous with eruptive events.
5. Create and interpret graphs and maps using time series and geospatial data
6. Access, earthquake, landslide and flood hazard data and related information on government internet sites.
7. Integrate diverse data sets to assess overall hazard of a given region.
8. Organize results of hazard analyses into a well-written and documented report.
I used this GETSI module in a "flipped" format, which can successfully replace lecture with active learning. The overarching concept of a flipped classroom is to deliver basic course content outside of the classroom (via pre-class readings, recorded video lectures, or other strategies). This content provides the foundation for in-class active learning exercises, in which students engage more deeply with the material -- thinking and reasoning like geoscientists rather than relying on more superficial memorization. Success of this teaching model is not guaranteed and requires finding realistic and engaging activities. This module on flood hazards contains several such activities. It takes students from basic hydrologic concepts through authentic construction of a FEMA 100 year flood map. It illustrates how LIDAR data can be used to compute hydraulic properties of a river and how this information is incorporated into hydraulic models of flooding.
UCSC's Geologic Hazards course requires introductory geology and its laboratory as a prerequisite, so the course material is presented at an intermediate majors-level. Overall course work consists of preparing two comprehensive geologic hazard reports that require data collection, analysis and interpretation; eleven shorter hazard exercises begun in class and completed at home; and a final group project that provides the opportunity to integrate most of the analytical hazard assessment methods covered in the class. The GETSI flood module was integrated into this overall structure.
Prior to use of this module in my class, students downloaded and interpreted 100-year flood plain hazard maps but had a very simplistic understanding of how they were computed. Running through the modeling procedure gave them much more ownership of the product, and therefore more confidence in using it for flood hazard assessment.
My Experience Teaching with GETSI Materials
I incorporated lecture material provided in this module into short video lectures and used the exercises for in class activities. Taking class time to work on these activities, rather than assigning them as homework, elevated their importance in student's minds so they were far more focused. This heightened attention along with the presence of both the professor and the TA to provide individualized instruction resulted in improved comprehension and performance compared with the more traditional delivery of similar material.
Relationship of GETSI Materials to my Course
Geologic Hazards is a quarter class taught over ten weeks. This flooding hazard module was taught in the 7th and 8th weeks of the class. By this time students have become familiar with downloading various kinds of hazard assessment data from relevant websites, Excel or other programs to graph data, and can think about hazards in a more sophisticated manner than earlier in the class.
Unit 1
- Students watched video lectures of a modified version of the PowerPoint materials provided before coming to class. I had them also take the Comet (UCAR) tutorial at home before starting this unit, rather than during Unit 2, so most of the basic information about flooding was presented together. I had students work in groups of two and each download data from a different stream in Part A in class so that I could make sure that they all knew how to access peak flow data for a gauging station, as this type of data is critical for many other units in this module. They completed Part A in class. Part B was completed at home and turned in at the next class. Students also learned how to find the flood stage of a river and how to generate a FEMA flood hazard map for a specific area. Both types of information for specific rivers will be used later in the class when students are asked to conduct a complete hazard assessment (including flooding) for a city in California that they pick for a final group project. Since students do group oral presentations on their final projects that include similar information contained in Part C of this Unit, I decided not to use Part C of Unit 1.
Unit 2
- In class, students downloaded the required data and completed a simplified flood frequency analysis for the Wabash River. The application of probability distribution models to estimate flow magnitudes for return periods beyond the range of data was beyond the math and statistics background of most of the students in this class so we did not complete the part of this exercise that included this analysis.
Unit 3
- Students watched video lectures of modified versions of the power point material provided with this module before coming to class. The first video covered GPS and other geodetic methods commonly used in the Earth Sciences and focused on geodetic methods used in floodplain analysis. The second video lecture covered an introduction to Manning's Equation. In class we computed the bankfull flow using Manning's equation for the upstream cross-section of the Lower Boise River together. For homework the students computed the bankfull flow for the downstream cross-section following the same procedures.
Unit 4
- I presented a lecture in class on the hydraulic modeling program HEC-RAS using a modified version of the power point material provided. We then ran through an example of how to use the software together in class. Students completed the exercise included in this module exploring the sensitivity of hydraulic modeling to the Manning's roughness coefficient of the river channel and banks. We created but could not print the inundation maps because the shapefile could not be exported as a KML file. Students with Macs could not easily download HEC-RAS, and this program was made available to them on PCs in a University computer lab.
Unit 5
- I did not use this Unit because it was not ready at the time I prepared my course syllabus. I do plan to use this Unit in the next offering of this class.
Assessments
I used each of the student exercises as the summative assessment for that unit and its associated learning goals. Some aspects of knowledge gained in the flood hazards component of the course were assessed in the final course project but otherwise I did not do a summative assessment of the flood hazard module alone.
Outcomes
The students gained a much more nuanced understanding of how flood maps are generated and some of the limitations in hazards determination in general. In my "flipped" classroom I strive to find active learning exercises that give students the chance to apply higher order thinking skills to course topics. This module provided several such activities and I intended to use elements of it again in the future.
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