Hurricanes Matthew and Florence: impacts and opportunities to improve floodplain management

A NatureNet project was initiated in 2018 in by The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes and The Nature Conservancy to identify solutions for water quality management under extremes ranging from floods to droughts with a focus on agroecosystems. Hurricanes that damage lives and property are accompanied by poor water quality that affects both human and natural communities, yet these water quality impacts are difficult to quantify. To aid in understanding the implications of elevated storm frequency and intensity, we developed an operational remote sensing-based hurricane flood extent mapping method, analyzed potential impacts to human and natural assets from Hurricane Matthew (2016) and Hurricane Florence (2018) in North Carolina, and identified options that could reduce impacts and increase resilience to future storms. Flooding detected with synthetic aperture radar (>91% accuracy) extended beyond state-mapped hazard zones. This data package provides the training datasets and flood map products for Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, as well as a map of opportunities where watershed-scale interventions could be implemented in flooded areas across the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. Accompanying code is available as supporting information for the peer-reviewed publication, and can also be accessed from https://github.com/dschaffersmith/repeatFloodingNC. The methods for these and other analyses are also described in greater detail in: Schaffer-Smith, D., Myint, S.W., Muenich, R.L., Tong, D., & DeMeester, J.E. 2020. Repeated hurricanes reveal risks and opportunities for social-ecological resilience to flooding and water quality problems. Environmental Science & Technology.