Athens County just experienced its driest August on record.
Before that, it received historic amounts of rainfall. From January to July, the county got 44 inches of rain — significantly higher than the 25 to 30 inches it receives in a typical year.
In a region prone to flash flooding, those extra inches came at a cost.
“We had some major culvert road blowouts from some very significant rain events that happened in July. And those costs go on top of the typical annual maintenance and road costs for our communities,” said Ryan Gilliom, a conservation specialist with the nonprofit Rural Action.
As extreme weather events become more common, the organization is working with Athens County and the engineering consulting firm BSC Group to map local flooding and erosion patterns.
With the support of a $101,000 grant from the Climate Smart Communities initiative, they’re aiming to analyze the risks floodwater poses to infrastructure and then come up with nature-based solutions to mitigate them.
Flash flooding in Appalachia
Flash flooding has long been a concern in Appalachian communities like those in Athens County.
“It's a particular hazard with the development in Appalachia because most of the land that's flat enough to build on is in the floodplain,” Gilliom said. “So we have roads and houses and communities in or near the floodplain with not many other places to build.”
But detailed maps of the floodplain are lacking.
“Because we're rural, much of the land area isn't mapped for FEMA flood insurance mapping, so we don't have a data set of where the floodplain is,” Gilliom said. “And therefore, it's much harder to — on a landscape scale — really understand what infrastructure is at risk, whose homes are at risk, where particular road infrastructure is at risk.”
This project aims to change that, Gilliom said, so that local leaders can make more informed decisions as they prepare for the possibility of more intense flooding in the future.
Planning for the future
In addition to creating a hazard model, the grant participants are also identifying locations where nature-based solutions could mitigate flooding and erosion risks.
“Vegetation is a really key player in the water cycle in stabilizing soil, moving water through evapotranspiration and creating pockets in the soil to hold water,” Gilliom said. “So nature-based solutions use the strengths of vegetation and our natural ecosystems to hold water, clean water and create beneficial spaces for habitat and humans to enjoy.”
Riparian trees, restored wetlands and urban green infrastructure, for example, could all help reduce the impacts of flooding in the future.
“Particularly with flooding, it's something you see when it happens in your backyard, but it's difficult to understand where and how badly it happens, especially with the flash flooding across our landscape in this region,” Gilliom said.
“So when we can develop landscape-scale data sets for a particular jurisdiction or a particular watershed, we can take that 30,000-foot view that is needed to … plan forward-thinking actions that reduce risks and negative outcomes in the future.”
