RAPID: Critical Assessment of Drainage Infrastructure Performance in a Sustained Flooding Event: The Case of Hurricane Florence

飓风佛罗伦萨表明，卡罗来纳州沿海和近沿海地区易受持续洪水的影响，造成了生命损失和严重的财产损失。排水基础设施的能力和状况在尽量减少水浸事件的影响方面起着至关重要的作用，但这些系统可能会因极端水浸而受损，从而加剧水浸的影响，缩短排水基础设施的剩余使用寿命。该RAPID项目将评估佛罗伦萨相关的持续洪水对雨水基础设施的结构和水力服务能力的影响。项目参与者将收集时间敏感的峰值流量和资产（包括土壤）性能数据，包括在佛罗伦萨飓风期间或之后发生的故障和其他重大事件。在此阶段收集的数据应足以用于未来排水基础设施性能的建模和验证。时间敏感的数据需要在被篡改或丢失之前尽快在现场收集。对时间敏感的地理空间数据包括洪水高度和峰值流量，雨水管道和其他排水基础设施资产的状况评估，资产故障及其机制，以及通过基础设施相互依赖的级联故障。收集到的数据将有助于进一步了解持续水浸事件对排水基础设施的影响。收集到的条件数据以及危险特征将提供给研究界，用于开发和验证以洪水事件导致排水基础设施恶化为重点的模型。鉴于美国沿海和近海岸地区对洪水的脆弱性日益增加，该研究项目为推进科学理解和收集具有广泛影响的关键经验数据提供了极好的机会。这项研究的结果将直接帮助受佛罗伦萨飓风影响的地区提高对其排水基础设施状况的了解，并为其在未来洪水事件中的安全和有效管理提出建议。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Hurricane Florence demonstrated the vulnerability of coastal and near coastal regions in the Carolinas to sustained flooding, which resulted in the loss of lives and severe property damage. While the capacity and condition of drainage infrastructures play a crucial role in minimizing the impacts of such flooding events, these systems might experience damage due to extreme flooding that will worsen the flooding impacts and diminish the remaining useful life of the drainage infrastructures. This RAPID project will assess the impact of Florence-related sustained flooding on the structural and hydraulic serviceability of the stormwater infrastructure. The project participants will collect time-sensitive peak discharge and asset (including soil) performance data including failures and other significant incidents during or immediately after Hurricane Florence. Data collected in this phase should suffice for future modeling of the drainage infrastructure performance and validation. The time-sensitive data needs to be collected in the field as soon as possible before it is tampered with or lost. Time-sensitive geo-spatial data includes flooding elevations and peak discharges, condition assessment of stormwater pipelines and other drainage infrastructure assets, asset failures and their mechanisms, and cascading failures through infrastructure interdependencies. The collected data will lead to enhanced understanding of the impact of a sustained flooding event on drainage infrastructures. The collected condition data along with hazard characterization will be made available to the research community for developing and validating models focused on drainage infrastructure deterioration due to flooding events. Given the growing vulnerability of coastal and near-coastal regions across the United States to flooding, this research project provides an excellent opportunity to advance scientific understanding and gather critical empirical data that can be broadly impactful. The outcomes of this research will directly assist the Hurricane Florence affected regions with improved knowledge of their drainage infrastructure condition and recommendations for its safe and efficient management during future flooding events.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.