Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2021TN005G

Increasing Water Treatment Resiliency by Using Natural Flood Records to Reduce the Uncertainty of Water Hazard Predictions Under Changing Climate

Institute: Tennessee
USGS Grant Number:
Year Established: 2021 Start Date: 2021-10-01 End Date: 2023-09-30
Total Federal Funds: $88,046 Total Non-Federal Funds: $109,879

Principal Investigators: John Schwartz

Project Summary: Floods are among the most common water hazards in the United States (U.S.), causing significant damage to wastewater treatment plants through loss of power and direct damage to facilities. Consequently, flood-related water hazards pose a significant public health risk, which will likely be exacerbated by climate change (Rudolph et al., 2018). The proposed work aims to: (1) provide updated flood analyses to wastewater treatment plants located on the Tennessee River in support of FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program; (2) improve frequency and magnitude estimates of extreme floods using new techniques developed for flood frequency analyses; results will be used by TVA to conduct probabilistic flood hazard assessments for dams in proximity to wastewater treatment facilities; and (3) examine changes in extreme flood frequency, within the context of climate variability, across the Tennessee River Valley to improve the Region 5 (Appalachian Region) envelope curve.