Integrating GIS and Spatial Optimization Into Sustainable Urban Rainwater Management

Climate change poses significant challenges to urban areas, such as more frequent and severe floods and droughts, necessitating innovative solutions to address its impacts. This dissertation comprises three interconnected studies addressing climate-change impacts and urban resilience: flood vulnerability analysis on transportation networks, rainwater harvesting, and the optimal placement of Green Storm Infrastructure (GSI).Study 1 focuses on pre-flood vulnerability analysis of transportation networks during urban floods. Traditional vulnerability assessments often assume road users have perfect knowledge of road conditions during flooding, leading to underestimations in travel delay. This study introduces a new assessment method considering road users' limited awareness of flooding conditions. Integrating high-resolution flood analysis, a case study in Tucson, Arizona, explores extreme thunderstorm-induced flash floods, and simulations reveal substantial underestimations in travel delay using conventional methods. The findings provide crucial insights for disaster management and for identifying critical road segments as well as communities vulnerable to flooding. Study 2 investigates the adoption disparities in a rainwater harvesting (RWH) rebate program to address water scarcity. RWH serves as an essential strategy to conserve and provide alternative water resources, and the practice has been supported by various incentive programs launched by local governments. However, RWH rebate redemption rates vary among population groups and neighborhoods. While most existing studies have examined various factors affecting the implementation of rainwater harvesting, very little attention has been paid to the adoption of RWH incentive programs and the resulting adoption disparities. This research aims to explore the factors contributing to the disparity issue in different types of RWH rebate redemption and provide valuable insights for designing effective and equitable RWH inc