Work

Co-designing stormwater adaptations through community-informed urban pluvial flood modeling

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The intensification of the hydrologic cycle due to climate change poses a threat to urban areas with aging and under-sized water infrastructure systems which often fail to adequately manage intense storm events. The City of Baltimore, Maryland, experiences recurrent stormwater (pluvial) flooding that overwhelms drainage infrastructure, damages housing and disrupts transportation. Adaptations are urgently needed to manage this threat; however, flood mitigation plans frequently fails to consider the objectives and preferences of residents. Engaging communities in pluvial flood modeling is often limited to hazard identification or model validation, and collaborative development of adaptation strategies is uncommon. This study presents a co-designed urban flood modeling framework in which community and technical experts directly inform flood model development and adaptation design through long-term and iterative engagement. The EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is used to integrate city-provided drainage infrastructure data, community-mapped flood locations, and local expert knowledge of local hydrologic processes. Three adaptations of interest to stakeholders, including green infrastructure, enhanced maintenance, and a combination of both, are simulated and compared across three representative rainfall scenarios. Enhanced infrastructure maintenance is found to be the most effective adaptation, reducing flood depths at priority intersections, though with spatially variable effects across the watershed. Spatially-concentrated greening provides limited benefit to the watershed as a whole. Together, these adaptations have the potential to reduce flood depths by as much as 55% in select locations, which would greatly reduce impacts on local stakeholders. This work demonstrates that co-produced flood models can serve as shared tools for learning and deliberation. Furthermore, these models can test adaptation options that are grounded in both hydrologic process and community priorities, resulting in more relevant and usable insights for communities working to prepare for climate impacts.

Source: Sustainable Cities and Society

DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2026.107750