flooding – envirobites

Summertime Sadness: Hurricanes and Water Quality

October 26, 2018October 29, 2018 Nick Iraola 0 Comments environmental policy, flooding, human impacts, hurricanes, river ecology, swine farms, water pollution, water quality

Hurricanes are natural disasters that can turn water quality nasty! Just how nasty depends on what’s on the land that’s being flooded. Hurricane Fran (1996) struck the Cape Fear region in southeastern North Carolina, and researchers from the University of North Carolina Wilmington noticed dissolved oxygen plummeted as a result of swamp water and swine farm waste flooding. The lack of oxygen in the water caused widespread death of fish and critters living in the bottom of the rivers, not to mention all that sewage introduced bacteria and disease into the environment! Swamp water flooding may be a natural, unavoidable consequence of hurricanes, but we must have policies and practices in place to reduce further degrading water quality from human activities.

Cities Climate Environmental Science Human Exposure and Public Health

Why coastal flood maps are wrong: the tale of compound hazards

August 8, 2018August 9, 2018 Mary Grace Lemon 0 Comments Climate Change, environmental policy, extreme weather, flooding, hurricanes, hydrology, sea level rise, urban hydrology, water management

Coastal flooding is expected to increase in frequency due to future sea level rise and more extreme weather, but most coastal flood hazards maps do not portray the increase risk. We dive deeper into how these maps are made and uncover why the current flood hazard maps may be misleading.