Building Flood Resilience with Nature-Based Solutions

Project Title

Community-Grounded Adaptation Strategies for Forest Management and Resilience to Flooding

Project Description

Climate change has intensified flooding events beyond historical levels, particularly in the past two decades. Forested areas provide essential flood protection and a range of valuable ecosystem services, including clean water supply, carbon storage and cultural significance. But rapid urbanization poses a significant threat to these ecosystems, especially across the southeastern United States. Discussions on nature-based solutions, spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Interior, have underscored that achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is unattainable without natural climate solutions, such as halting deforestation and wetland preservation. This project aims to address these challenges and enhance resilience by exploring the interplay between urban expansion, flood hazards and human responses involving nature-based strategies. We aim to develop a predictive framework to evaluate the effectiveness of community-informed natural adaptation strategies in reducing flood exposure under varying scenarios of environmental change.

Principal Investigators

Georgina Sanchez (Director)
Jelena Vukomanovic
Mirela Tulbure
Ross Meentemeyer

Expected Outcomes

This project will benefit natural resources managers and communities aiming to implement proactive strategies that anticipate the impact of urbanization on ecosystems supporting their flood resilience.

• Mapping of forested lands and wetlands currently threatened by future urban development.
• Development of a publicly accessible, user-friendly online portal where stakeholders can visualize scenarios.
• Greater understanding of location-specific adaptations likely to reduce future flood exposure.

Research Methods

To meet the project goals, the principal investigators will utilize the following research methods:

• Conduct model simulations that account for interactions between urban growth, flood hazards and human adaptive responses to flooding.
• Create “what-if” policy interventions and flood adaptation scenarios.
• Evaluate the tradeoffs associated with different adaptation scenarios.
• Involve various stakeholders in knowledge co-production.

About McIntire-Stennis

The McIntire-Stennis program, a unique federal-state partnership, cultivates and delivers forestry and natural resource innovations for a better future. By advancing research and education that increases the understanding of emerging challenges and fosters the development of relevant solutions, the McIntire-Stennis program has ensured healthy resilient forests and communities and an exceptional natural resources workforce since 1962.