Twin Floods: A Case Study Comparison of the Great Red River Floods of 1990 and 2015

Excessive heavy rainfall over central Oklahoma and northern Texas during the spring of 1990 and again in the spring of 2015 led to near-record flooding along the Red River in both years. While the rainfall events that led to the flooding in these years were similar in nature, crests along the lower Red River in the 2015 flood were greater than those achieved in the 1990 flood, and were particularly impactful for the metropolitan area of Shreveport and Bossier City, Louisiana. This study will take a comparative in-depth look at the two flooding events, including the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall as well as the extent of flooding impacts to identify the similarities and the differences between the two events. Further, this study will identify factors that potentially affected the outcome of the 2015 flood, with an emphasis on the impacts to the Shreveport and Bossier City metropolitan areas. Such factors include post-1990 commercial and residential development along the river channel and the 1995 addition of lock and dam structures along the lower Red River.