PROVIDING REAL-TIME FLOOD CONDITIONS TO CITIZENS IN THE CHARLESTON REGION: A TIDAL FLOODING AND RAINFALL-RUNOFF TOOL

Citizens in the coastal South Carolina region face an ever-growing struggle with understanding the impacts of tidally-induced and rainfall flooding on their daily routines. Charleston, SC. is considered one of the eight most vulnerable city to sea level rise and the associated impacts of climate change. Salt water from the flooding of estuarine systems affect the infrastructure and the citizens alike. Researchers at the College of Charleston have created a mapping application to address this issue. Gauge station tidal heights, as well as, current and predicted rainfall conditions are being incorporated into a web-based interactive mapping portal that displays a model of roads in Charleston County that have the greatest chance of being flooded given the daily conditions. The system uses a database of modeled tidal flooding severity for every road in Charleston County, S.C. linked to a set intervals of tide height to corresponding flood intensity for each road segment. A new hydrologically-conditioned digital elevation model (DEM) was created for the application by identifying and correcting over 8,000 culverts across the surface and has been used to develop rainfall models across the county. The DEM is being shared with researchers and managers across the county as foundational data. Additionally, the application was designed and tested, allowing querying of environmental monitoring data from around the study area and displays the projected flood conditions in real-time to end users. 11 undergraduate students from Computer Science, along with 2 graduate students from were hired to work on the project, receiving training in hydrology, atmospheric science, and GIS programming. This application will not only inform citizens across the region about the timing and location of flooding on a real-time basis, but it will also provide general information and education on potential surge and hurricane and long-term vulnerability problems.