Climate Risk-Informed Flood Inundation Mapping (CRFM) Project

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has identified the enhancement of flood inundation mapping under future climate conditions as a fundamental and critical climate change adaptation strategy. Mapping serves as foundational information upon which future planning and actions depend — necessary, though insufficient, for climate resilience. This innovative study focuses on the Tuolumne River and leverages existing studies’ models, data, and tools to pioneer a risk-informed approach in creating a flood inundation mapping procedure that supports climate resilience. This study moves beyond outdated stationarity-based practices by incorporating non-stationarity into climate change projections, offering a forward-thinking solution to address the limitations of current methodologies.