Protecting historic architecture, urban fabric, landscapes and the populations who inhabit them from the growing risk of flooding wrought by climate change is a challenging prospect. Communities are faced with responding to increasing climate change-induced crises and adapting to a dramatically changing environment, having only a limited set of tools that are inadequate to cope with the intensity and urgency of the impacts. Successful adaptation strategies require a level of cultural sensitivity that is often lacking in conventional flood mitigation measures such as permanent static elevation. Forward- looking, creative approaches are needed, capable of responding and adapting to future levels of flooding that are difficult, if not impossible, to quantify in advance, especially in our current state of climate uncertainty.

Amphibious architecture is an innovative approach to climate change adaptation that is in early stages of technical development and refinement. It is a flood risk reduction strategy that works in synchrony with a flood-prone region’s natural cycles of flooding, rather than attempting to obstruct them. A buoyant foundation is a retrofit of an existing building that enables it to remain in place until flooding occurs when it rises and floats on the water’s surface until it returns to its original position as the floodwater recedes. Unlike permanent static elevation, a buoyant foundation retrofit is capable of providing heritage structures with protection from flood damage with little or no change to the appearance of the building or loss of visual coherence of the neighborhood. Although buoyant foundations are not universally suitable for all types of flooding or construction, nonetheless in appropriate situations they have much to offer to cities in a crisis that have few other culturally acceptable options.

According to the new Union of Concerned Scientists’ study, “When Rising Seas Hit Home,” by the year 2100 even moderate sea level rise will bring chronic innundation to the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Citizens are grappling with how best to adapt to the new climate conditions without compromising the character and integrity of their historic neighborhoods. In Charleston, the “freedman’s cottages” are representative of Charleston’s architectural tradition of building “tiny homes” well before this typology gained its current appeal. These very modest dwellings, constructed throughout the 1800s, typically range from only 300 to 500 square feet. They were originally built for the families of workers employed by the wealthy upper class who lived in considerably larger and grander versions of the same basic typology. Today, these easily affordable and adaptable historic houses are threatened by relentlessly rising seas. It is anticipated that in less than twenty years, low-lying neighborhoods such as those in the Lower Peninsula that are home to concentrations of freedman’s cottages will suffer from regular and repetitive flooding occurring more than two dozen times per year. Buoyant foundations offer an affordable alternative to under-resourced communities and neighborhoods to fight buy-outs, teardowns and displacement. This new approach provides an innovative technical solution for communities such as Charleston with significant cultural heritage and profound attachment to place and home.

In coastal areas around the country, communities are facing the challenges of rising water. Flooding due to sea level rise, storm surge, and intense rainfall is becoming more frequent in the Carolinas and elsewhere. Coastal Risk Consulting (CRC) has developed a flood risk assessment tool for mapping areas at risk of inundation. Our model is built on publicly available data sets from agencies such as NOAA, FEMA and USGS. Our technology is available to local governments, private organizations and property owners to enable them to make better-informed decisions about protecting existing developments, designing new construction, and long term planning. For municipalities, we can generate a community- wide vulnerability assessment and make recommendations for appropriate adaptation measures.

CRC worked with Christ and St Luke's Episcopal Church in Norfolk, VA, where flooding is already impacting the city regularly. CRC's flood forecasts helped the parish understand how to better protect their beautiful historic building as well as the community and sense of identity that they derive from the use and enjoyment of that space.

In Florida, CRC has worked with municipalities such as Miami Shores Village to help local leaders plan for sea level rise and climate change. CRC conducted a public meeting to raise awareness and gather feedback about flooding hotspots and residents' priorities. CRC worked closely with village staff address specific concerns and prioritize urgent needs. In collaboration with experienced civil engineers, CRC developed maps detailing infrastructure such as roads and drainage systems that were at short and long term risk of inundation due to sea level rise. Our team gave the Village recommendations for what types of investments were needed to address the flooding, such as roadbed improvements to withstand higher groundwater levels and converting septic tanks to sanitary sewer. This project provided officials with the information they needed to develop budgets and plan for improvements over the coming years and decades.

With sea levels rising at unprecedented levels, everyone should have the right to understand the risk from potential consequences, both today and in the near future. That was why we built Flood iQ (floodiq.com). Currently, it holds data for many states along the East Coast and continues to expand to include information on properties in the remaining at-risk U.S. coastal regions. Our free flood risk tool was developed in consultation with many government, academic, and private sector advisers and is designed to make difficult information easily accessible and digestible for all.

Our models forecast two types of flooding events. 1) Tidal flooding events (also referred to as King Tides) can cause temporary flooding of low-lying areas near the coast during exceptionally high tide events, such as full and new moons. As the sea level rises, more areas are at risk. Areas already at risk face even greater risk. 2) Hurricanes can cause flooding by creating a storm surge. The surge occurs when a storm pulls up water from the ocean and carries it to affected areas as a result of wind and low- pressure events. We combine these forecasts with information on Sea level Rise levels per the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). By using data from local tide gauges, the USACE online tool provides projection scenarios at regionally specific locations.

Once our data is modeled, Risk Scores are determined by calculating how much of your property and your neighborhood may be impacted by flooding and how soon. Any amount of water that affects property is a risk in our calculations. Tidal Flooding and Hurricane Risk scores are calculated separately. Property flooding was calculated through the interaction of current and future water levels compared to fine resolution elevation data. Tidal flooding can occur multiple times a year. We have mapped the elevation of properties against the highest daily tide levels from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to calculate thepercent (area) of your property that could repeatedly flood (approximately 10 or more days a year). Hurricanes flooding was based on potential storm surge, with the more severe the hurricane, the greater the storm surge. These projections leverage the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) SLOSH models to determine where the storm surge may occur.

In addition to property statistics, neighborhood flooding percentage is calculated by taking the number of properties that could be flooded within a 1/4-mile radius of your property divided by the total number of properties in your neighborhood and nearby road flooding is also computed by examining all road surface within a quarter mile of your property that experiences some level flooding.

Ultimately, our goal in this presentation is to share our experiences in the development of the tool and solicit feedback from experts, as well as potential users, in regard to their thoughts on the tool and ways that we can improve the tool to best meet our mission of providing free and accessible tools for the better understanding of SLR and its consequences.

AgeothinQ is a pioneer of an on-demand geographic land mapping and data visualization platform for land stakeholders that is accelerating smart data-driven decisions about valuable land. This intuitive, centralized, web-based application allows anyone to quickly begin learning everything they need to know about how various geospatial elements affect a property. Land stakeholders will better understand the resilience of their property by utilizing dozens of GIS layers including property boundaries, LiDAR-Derived Topography, FEMA Flood Hazard Boundaries, and Projected Sea Level Rise. We will demonstrate a few case studies from geothinQ’s diverse group of clients whose work influences the natural and built environment including land developers, land managers, municipalities, public & private utilities, and economic development groups.