The Flash Flood Laboratory at Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Research in The Atmosphere

Abstract

To address the physical and social problem of flash flooding, in 1997 Colorado State University (CSU) created the FLASH FLOOD LABORATORY. It is designed to focus the attention of faculty, researchers, and students on many aspects of flash flooding. The issues are concern to physical and social scientists and reflect a complex set of social, scientific, and economic problems. This interdisciplinary laboratory provides the opportunity for a wide range of academic disciplines including atmospheric science, hydrology, geology, geography, sociology, public administration, economics, and natural resources to collectively address flash flooding in an end-to-end process. Projects will concern atmospheric modeling of heavy rain storms; hydrologic run off modeling; application of geographic information systems in analysis, warnings, and recovery; hazard mitigation, emergency planning, and warning decision-making; and response to develop useful tools for local, state, and federal officials. Interaction between the numerous social and physical processes will be explored.