Coastal Georgia is vulnerable to compound risks from coastal inundation and environmental contamination by hazardous materials. These risks are not borne evenly by its population but instead disproportionately threaten underserved communities. Using Glynn County, GA, as a case study, this project proposes to quantify the compound risks of coastal inundation and contamination, and to estimate…
Towards an Operational Compound Flood Model for the St. Johns River
UGA has partnered with the NOAA Southeast River Forecast Center and its chief hydrologist, John Schmidt, to develop a real-time compound flood forecast model for the St. John River watershed in Florida. The project will involve developing state-of-the-art numerical models that could simulate coastal and hydrologic processes in real time. This model is urgently needed…
EPA Region 4 Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center
The EPA Region 4 Environmental Justice (EJ) Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC), housed at RTI International, serves all the states within the EPA Region 4 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). UGA is the lead institution in Georgia, and our team includes community-based organizations such as ECO-action and VCI (Vulnerable…
Integrating Coastal and Riverine Natural Infrastructure to Reduce Multi-Flood Hazards
As the world moves towards resilient and safe solutions against natural disasters and climate change, numerical modeling of Natural and Nature-based Features (NNBF) has been a beneficial approach in recent years. However, when it comes to estuarine regions, it is vital to analyze these features as a holistic system to understand and even predict their…
Urban Flood Mitigation using Nature-Based Solutions: the Tietê River in São Paulo City
Major impacts in hydrologic dynamics are expected due to climate change, especially in highly disordered urbanized areas like São Paulo City, which has suffered extreme flood events and water pollution. Similar consequences have been documented in other highly disordered urbanized cities in Latin America, such as Mexico City (Mexico), Bogotá (Colombia), and Santiago (Chile). Over…
Using Hybrid Infrastructure to Reduce Loads on Coastal Features Due to Wave Attenuation
As coastal flooding increases due to global warming, there is a growing imperative for strategies like nature-based solutions (NBS) that use ecosystems to manage floods and erosion. Observations suggest that mangroves, salt marshes, and other living shorelines can protect coastlines during extreme events such as hurricanes and tsunamis by attenuating waves from 50% to 70%….
Hurricane Idalia Data
Meteorological data from Hurricane Idalia. For more information about the data being shown, visit https://citra.engr.uga.edu/city-of-tybee-meteorological-station-data
Mapping Compound Inundation along Puerto Rico’s Coastal Watersheds: A Practical Approach
Due to recent compound flood events such as Hurricane Harvey (2017), Hurricane Florence 2018), and Hurricane Sally (2020), inundation studies have transitioned from single flood hazards toward multi-hazard flood modeling approaches. A compound flood is a flooding event that encompasses multiple flood hazards (e.g., precipitation, overland runoff, riverine flow, storm surge, waves, and astronomical tides)…
Floodplain Reconnection at Shawnee National Forest Oxbow
The degradation of the Big Muddy River watershed (Illinois, US), resulting from historical agricultural and mining practices and levees, has led to habitat loss and flooding problems in populated regions such as Cape Girardeau. The impact of river channel geometry on flood behavior has been extensively studied, focusing on how floodplain reconnection can enhance meandering…
Inland Litter Hydrodynamics: Characterizing the Litter Transport during Wet Weather Events in Communities
During wet weather events, the litter accumulated in communities, e.g., along the street gutter, can be transported by the surface runoff along the city streets and storm drainage system until it reaches outlets, which could be a river or the ocean in coastal communities. Despite this, most research on litter dynamics has occurred over the…
Impact of Controlled Overtopping on Wetland Rehabilitation and Flood Control
Riverine wetlands along the Mississippi River provide habitats for migratory waterfowl and many other ecosystem services. However, frequent flooding along the Mississippi River caused flood control infrastructure such as levees and dams to be built to minimize flooding impacts. This strategy caused wetland habitat reduction and altered the flood frequency of the system. In June…
Storm Water Management Model for the Coastal Region of the Metropolitan Planning Organization
The UGA team will review existing plans, tools, and data, including the Roadway Vulnerability Assessment GIS model, to identify additional data for integration into “compound” flooding data that considers: (a) sunny day flooding, (b) storm surge flooding, and (c) select design rainfall events for the CORE MPO metropolitan planning area. Rainfall-runoff data will consist of…