According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), flooding is the most damaging natural hazard in the world, and most flood damage occurs in cities. As exemplified by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, this damage is projected to rapidly increase, both due to increasing extreme precipitation events and urban sprawl into marshes and floodplains—so it is critical that cities learn to adapt and respond more quickly to floods to save lives and prevent damage to infrastructure.
“The future of our nation’s stormwater infrastructure is threatened by a simple irony,” said NAU civil engineer Ben Ruddell, associate professor of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems. “A city’s engineers, first responders, weather professionals and citizens are not connected to enough flood information where we need it the most: in our own backyards.”