NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Flooding is an issue that Norfolk residents know all too well.
In an effort to tackle recurring flooding issues, Old Dominion University was granted over $700,000 for a collaborative project that uses green infrastructure and nature-based designs in five southside Norfolk neighborhoods.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coastal Resilience Fund contributed $494,000 towards the two year project. An additional matching contribution of $213,000 was granted from the City of Norfolk’s Office of Resilience and Division of Environmental Stormwater Management and ODU’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience.
The project is expected to run from Jan. 1, 2024 though Dec. 2025. The award is part of the $10.8 million grant focusing on enhancing coastal resilience in Hampton Roads.
Mujde Erten-Unal, associate professor in the Department of Civil an Environmental Engineering and principal investigator for the project, will oversee the project through the Coastal Community Design Collaborative (CCDC), a group dedicated to sea level rise mitigation. Established in 2014, the CCDC includes ODU’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Civil Engineering Technology program based in the Department of Engineering Technology and the Hampton University Department of Architecture.
The project will offer both flood risk reduction for the area and educational opportunities for youth to understand adaptation strategies related to climate change. Students from ODU and Hampton University will collaborate with professionals and community members to create neighborhood plans that work for the community.
The designs created through the CCDC are sustainable, transferable and scalable. Some designs already implemented include living shorelines, rain gardens, rainwater harvesting devices, oyster habitats and permeable pavement.
“This is an excellent example of how engineers can use their expertise to benefit and partner with community stakeholders to address real problems in our community,” said Kenneth Fridley, dean of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology.
The designs are mostly being created by students, using natural ways to keep tidal flood water out of the roads.
“Things like rain gardens or permeable pavements, or cisterns, rain barrel storage,” said ODU’s Carol Considine.
She said the students spent a lot of time meeting with people who live in that part of town, learning about the constant road flooding they deal with.
“I think Hampton Roads is on the leading edge of these types of flooding problems,” Considine said, “and so kind of helping students understand what they’re going to be doing in their careers so as they become professionals, they are prepared.”
It is part of a greater $10 million project to enhance coastal resilience in Hampton Roads. Multiple universities and disciplines are collaborating for this, forming the Coastal Community Design Collaborative. Considine believes this will prepare them for future engineering careers amid a changing climate.
“We should be considering future climate, because most of our codes and standards look at historical climate, and we know that climate is changing,” she said. “So what I really like about this is both our architecture and engineering students, having an understanding that the climate is changing, and when they design solutions, they need to think about the impacts of that changing climate.”
