Flood Hazards Engineering and Adaptation STRP

Frequent flood events in Virginia pose ongoing challenges to communities such as property damage, washed-out roads, and casualties. Despite advances in scientific research and innovation, barriers to implementing transformational flood adaptation strategies persist. Local jurisdictions often struggle with capacity to effectively mitigate the impacts of these environmental hazards and adapt to future changes. In response, the STRP project team redesigned the CEIE 445/645 course curriculum to support the development of informational products for community-based partners seeking effective flood resilience planning.

Course activities were crafted to reshape workforce development from a classroom-focused approach to a user-centered engineering modeling focus. Students, with guidance from postdoctoral fellows and graduate teaching assistants, apply their learned skills with new models developed from the Virginia Department of Conservation (DCR) to create tailored case studies based on each client’s unique needs. These case studies can include current and future pluvial, tidal, and sea-level rise flood risk assessments as well as potential impacts on infrastructure that could be utilized in future cost-benefit analyses. At the conclusion of each course, the students deliver their results to the community partner and the project team work with community partners to refine the informational products, if needed, to support successful use. Explore the Fall 2024 student projects, community clients, and project team below.

The Flood Hazards Engineering and Adaptation STRP is seeking new community-based partners for the Fall 2025 Semester. Submit a Project Request Form here or contact Dr. Celso Ferreira ([email protected]) for additional information.  

Students and staff engaged with clients within three Virginia communities to develop tailored flood resilience products. Click the story maps to view each project.

NSF ART staff working on this project include course instructors, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students.