Projects
Student engineers supporting flood hazard mitigation
Civil engineering students listening in on a lecture by VCC postdoctoral researcher P. J. Ruess.
The Challenge
Flooding and extreme precipitation are increasing in frequency and intensity, causing devastating impacts on the Commonwealth’s communities, infrastructure, and economy. The intensifying rainfall is posing a particular threat to many of Virginia’s urban regions as the stress on aging stormwater infrastructure leads to inland flood events and subsequently endangers livelihoods and costs millions.
Prince William County Government
The Project
Civil engineering students at George Mason University are working with communities across Virginia to analyze localized flood risk and support the creation of flood resilience strategies. The projects are part of Dr. Celso Ferreira’s CEIE 445/645 Flood Hazard Engineering and Adaptation course developed under George Mason’s NSF ART Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) Program.
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.
Who’s Involved?
The Fall 2024 projects were led by VCC flood experts Celso Ferreira and P. J. Ruess and their students in collaboration with three communities across Virginia.
Fall 2024 Projects
Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Reservation
Middle Peninsula Planning Commission
