Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID PA_2024_McPhillips

Potential pathways to mitigating climate change impacts on flooding with nature-based solutions in a central Pennsylvania watershed

Institute: Pennsylvania
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $25,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $25,000

Principal Investigators: Lauren McPhillips

Project Summary: The proposed work would help better understand future flooding risk and potential ways for us to reduce flooding and its impacts to people and infrastructure. We will focus on the Swatara Creek watershed near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Using computer models, we will simulate the impacts of climate change on future streamflow and flooding. We will also use the models to test out what would happen in the stream if we were to build different nature-based management strategies in the watershed, like constructed wetlands or restored floodplains. We hope that the results of this research can help better prepare for future flooding risk in our region and help us understand how to reduce that risk.