The Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP) project has developed an integrated resilience modeling framework aimed at mitigating vulnerabilities within crucial interdependent infrastructure systems. This framework has enabled a detailed assessment of the interconnected vulnerabilities that span both physical and social systems, with a specific focus on southeastern Florida (Greater Miami) and southeastern Texas (Greater Houston), USA. The West Virginia University (WVU) part of the project focused on modeling and prediction of urban exposure and risk to flooding during hurricanes and tropical storms. Its primary aim was to predict and develop spatially explicit reference scenarios, indicating places susceptible to stormwater flooding and inundation in subcoastal and coastal urban areas during hurricanes, considering climatic and land cover variabilities.

The project led to the determination of individual and synergistic controls of climatic and land cover changes on stormwater runoff regimes in complex coastal-urban environments. Large-scale mechanistic hydrologic models at fine spatial resolutions were developed and evaluated (calibrated and validated) for the Southeast Coasts Basin (7,117 km²) of Florida and Buffalo Saint Jacinto Basin (3,132 km²) of Texas, considering these as ideal study areas for coastal-urban environments that represent high population and complex drainage networks. The models were utilized to predict stormwater runoff and associated flooding risk during 2010s (2004-2013), 2050s (2044-2053), and 2080s (2076-2085). A predominant climatic (rainfall) control, compared to that of land cover, was on the potential runoff changes and associated flooding risks in the coastal and subcoastal urban environments. The concurrent changes in climate and land cover led to synergistic (stronger) responses of runoff than the linear summation of their individual effects. Stormwater runoff is projected to increase by 80-118% (i.e., apparently doubling) in the coastal-urban basins by 2050s-80s under the representative concentration pathway scenarios of 4.5 and 8.5. High increases were noted at and around the urban centers such as the greater Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Houston regions. The predicted stormwater scenarios were taken as inputs into the evacuation and infrastructure modeling framework to determine the best strategies to achieve infrastructure sustainability and community resilience. The research outcomes would, therefore, guide stormwater management, ecosystem protection, and mitigations of hurricane impacts in coastal built environments across the world.

The project had a significant impact on the development of human resources by training students with necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude for promoting sustainable and resilient infrastructure and communities. Three doctoral, three masters’ (with thesis), and two undergraduate students (all graduated) in WVU Civil and Environmental Engineering directly worked on this project during 2019-2024. The students developed skillset and expertise on foundational research and applications, leading to their professional developments with specialization on urban/natural hydrology and hydraulics, applied statistics, data-driven and process-based modeling, geographic information system (GIS), and remote sensing under the broad umbrella of climatology, hydrology, and water resources engineering. They were trained in data curation, data analysis, computer programming (in Excel, MATLAB, Python), simulations, and watershed processes. All students landed high-end research and/or consulting careers in the U.S., contributing to the growth of U.S. economy.

The project activities at WVU promoted participation of students from various states (e.g., WV, PA, NY, NJ, DC, MD, and VA), including economically disadvantaged groups from the Appalachian region. The project engaged many graduate and undergraduate students. The research objectives, activities, and findings were shared with a large group of undergraduate and graduate students through numerous junior/senior level undergraduate and graduate classes during 2019-2024. New curriculum and pedagogical materials were developed for the courses. Hands-on training was provided to hundreds of students on developing stormwater hydrologic models to predict urban runoff and assess flooding risks in coastal settings. They were trained in data curation, analysis, modeling and prediction, and urban watershed hydrologic and hydraulic engineering.

The findings were broadly disseminated through 13 presentations and 14 abstracts at respected international conferences. Additionally, five invited talks were given by the PI (Abdul-Aziz): three at regional workshop/conferences arranged by the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership in Florida, one for the Climate and Water Webinar Series of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and one to a large group of scientists/engineers from various peer U.S. universities. Based on the project activities and findings, the PI convened and chaired three well-attended sessions on flood modeling, prediction, and assessment at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Annual Environmental & Water Resources Congresses, held during 2019-2024. Four journal articles and one conference article (all peer-reviewed) were published based on the results of this project. Two additional journal manuscripts have been prepared; these manuscripts are expected to be published in the near future. Two newspaper articles and three YouTube videos were published where the PI shared his work and expertise on flooding with the stakeholders—including citizens and experts from the city, county, state, and Federal agencies.

Last Modified: 03/19/2025
Modified by: Omar I Abdul-Aziz