EPA Bus Tour Showcases Hampton Roads Region is a Living Laboratory for Coastal Resilience

November 27, 2019

ODU researchers guide an international audience through city hotspots demonstrating the visible impact of tidal and recurrent flooding.

Old Dominion University researchers hosted a bus tour for international researchers exploring the visible impacts of tidal and recurrent flooding, as well as efforts to build resilience.

"ODU is a national leader in the fields of risk, resilience and recovery," said Joshua Behr, associate professor at ODU's Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC). "This is clearly demonstrated by the growing relationship between ODU and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which held its 2019 International Conference on Decontamination Research and Development in Downtown Norfolk."

Roughly 400 participants representing federal, state and local government agencies, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations from all over the world took part in the three-day conference at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, which was hosted by EPA's Office of Research and Development's Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response.

The tour, led by Behr and George McLeod, assistant director of geospatial and visualization systems, took participants to the seawall protecting the downtown business district. Behr and McLeod illustrated the potential depth of storm surge by chalking lines on the seawall illustrating the surge experienced during the 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac storm.

"The 1933 storm is often referred to as the benchmark for storm surge in the Hampton Roads region," McLeod noted during the tour. "The construction of the seawall is intended to protect downtown from catastrophic flooding."