Virginia Beach Comprehensive Sea Level Rise and Recurrent Flooding Planning Study

Creating a More Resilient City
Virginia Beach, Virginia

We are leading a systematic analysis of Virginia Beach to proactively address repetitive and projected increases in flooding issues. Our integrated resilience team is collaborating with the City of Virginia Beach as well as a group of local and regional partners to provide technical expertise and leadership in assessing flooding risk, designing adaptation strategies, and navigating pathways for implementation.  

500

square miles of land and water

2

year-long community engagement and iterative development processes using the Virginia Beach Sea Level Rise Policy Adaptation Report

150+

potential policy actions

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. 

Client

City of Virginia Beach

Awards

2016 Regional Coastal Resilience Grant Award

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

2016 Service Award for Outstanding Diversity Champion Business

City of Virginia Beach Minority Business Council

Services

  • Planning, Consulting and Advisory

Markets

  • Risk, Response and Recovery

Regions

  • Mid-Atlantic