Validating the Quality of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) for Flood Modeling of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas

The primary objective of this study was to examine the quality volunteered geographic information (VGI) data for flood mapping Hurricane Harvey. As a crowdsourcing platform, U-Flood project mapped flooded streets in Houston metro area. This research examines following: (1) If there are any significant differences water depth (WD) among hydraulic and hydrologic (H&H) model, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reference floodplain map, VGI? (2) Are inundated areas between modeled by VGI simulation? used HEC-RAS simulate inundation maps validated results with high marks (HWM) FEMA-modeled after statistical showed that were WD, road count, length inside/outside HEC-RAS-modeled floodplain. also less consistent decreasing trend over time space. empirically evaluated based on observed monitoring. findings from fill gaps literature assessing uncertainty VGI, providing insights into using supplementary research.