Virginia Beach Comprehensive Sea Level Rise and Recurrent Flooding Planning Study

The team began by assessing the vulnerability and flood risk exposure of city assets and critical infrastructure for existing and potential sea level rise scenarios. This included a system-wide geospatial assessment of risk to buildings, roads, sewers, and other infrastructure systems under various tidal, nuisance, storm surge, and stormwater runoff flooding conditions. The team overlaid physical, environmental, and policy conditions to identify six focus areas for strategic development.

Leveraging the impact assessment results, the team developed dozens of planning, policy, and engineered flood risk reduction measures for mitigating short- and long-term risk. After engaging with city personnel, policies, and practices, the team designed a feasibility evaluation process for systematically comparing and prioritizing proposed strategies, and tailored practical solutions to fit each of the city’s four diverse major watersheds. Our role in this contract will continue with the development of watershed-level plans to provide conceptual design, overall costs, possible funding sources, and outreach activities in an actionable framework.