Living with Water: Documenting Lived Experience and Social-Emotional Impacts of Chronic Flooding for Local Adaptation Planning

Stakeholder Driven Sensor Deployments to Characterize Chronic Coastal Flooding in Key West Florida

“…Due to these potential impacts of chronic coastal flooding on safety and tourism, additional studies are needed in popular tourist areas such as Key West to better prepare for and respond to increasing inundation events. Low levels of flooding, when occurring often, can cause cumulative impacts, creating more destruction and erosion to roadways than a single storm (Campbell et al., 2021; Gold et al., 2022). Identifying which roadways flood most often in a municipality provides planners with information on what areas need protection and may allow for anticipation and proactive mitigation of future issues.…”

“…SLR not only causes higher inundation during extreme events (e.g., hurricanes), but it also increases the frequency, magnitude, and duration of chronic coastal flooding (Gold et al., 2023; Li et al., 2021; Marsooli et al., 2019). Chronic coastal flooding, also called “sunny day flooding” or “high‐tide flooding,” refers to inundation events that occur outside of acute storm events (Campbell et al., 2021; Gold et al., 2023; Moftakhari et al., 2018). Chronic coastal flooding often causes disruption to routine activities and infrastructure systems, and it may lead to rapid degradation of existing infrastructure (Campbell et al., 2021; Gold et al., 2022; Moftakhari et al., 2017).…”

“…Chronic coastal flooding, also called “sunny day flooding” or “high‐tide flooding,” refers to inundation events that occur outside of acute storm events (Campbell et al., 2021; Gold et al., 2023; Moftakhari et al., 2018). Chronic coastal flooding often causes disruption to routine activities and infrastructure systems, and it may lead to rapid degradation of existing infrastructure (Campbell et al., 2021; Gold et al., 2022; Moftakhari et al., 2017). Many low‐lying coastal cities experience multiple days of flooding, and reoccurring inundation can add more strain to coastal systems (Gold et al., 2022).…”

Localizing Hydrological Drought Early Warning using In-situ Groundwater Sensors

“…For DEWSs, maps and hydrographs of real-time water levels can be presented alongside simulated water levels during historic drought events to place the real-time hydrological drought intensity into context (Twomlow et al, 2022). Stakeholders with lived experience of previous droughts can then interpret the likely processes and socioeconomic impacts that will arise from groundwater levels being higher or lower than previous drought years (Campbell et al, 2021;Hillbruner & Moloney, 2012). For national and humanitarian stakeholders, spatial maps of relative drought exposure can inform the national programming of anticipatory action and emergency response.…”

“…During long dry seasons where recharge is typically zero from January to early March (Figure 5; Maidment et al, 2017), this real-time visualization of water level decline enables a visual trajectory of the lead-time before the wells reach their critical levels. Users can also compare real-time water levels to simulations of water levels during previous drought years, such as 2017 (Figure 5), to contextualize the severity of the real-time water shortage with their experiences or understanding of previous droughts in that region (Campbell et al, 2021;Sword-Daniels et al, 2016). For both hydrologists and nonexperts, this direct comparison connects an understanding of the potential impacts of current water shortages, as well as the actions that can be taken to mitigate them based on learned lessons (Hillbruner & Moloney, 2012).…”