Residents of Cicero, Illinois have a powerful resource to understand flooding in their area — and potentially to reduce future floods.
Volunteering as a community scientist for the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange, DPI Postdoctoral Researcher Abhinav Wadhwa worked alongside community residents and Thriving Earth Exchange to create a story map that “visualizes flood vulnerability, tells the story of Cicero and provides compelling scientific data for investment in mitigation infrastructure,” according to the project description.
The problem:
In July 2023, a heavy rainstorm dumped nine inches of water on Cicero, flooding basements, streets, and homes, in many cases with water contaminated by sewer runoff and toxic chemicals.
As they cleaned up, community leaders Delia Barajas, Carmen Jimenez, Sasha Adkins, and Johnny Reyes looked for a way to prevent, or at least reduce, future flooding.
They contacted Thriving Earth Exchange, which contacted Ashish Sharma, DPI’s climate and urban sustainability lead, who immediately recommended Wadhwa, whose expertise is in flood prediction and mitigation.
Wadhwa and Caroline Huguenin, a community science fellow with Thriving Earth Exchange, knew they could create a solution backed by rigorous science. But they also knew that it needed to be accessible and lead to results that were within the community’s capacity to implement.
“For them, it is just that they have a problem, and they need a solution for it, and they need a solution that is easy to understand and quick to implement,” Wadhwa said. After meeting with the community leaders, Wadhwa and Huguenin decided the most effective resource they could provide was an assessment similar to one Wadhwa had done for the Quad Cities region.
The solution
Using satellite data from NASA earth observations and European space agencies, Wadhwa created animations of flood paths and highlighted areas with chronic severe flooding. After identifying those locations, he developed a hydrological model that could be zoomed in to neighborhood scale to illustrate past flooding at any household on the map. Since the model itself was based on simulation data, he validated it through local observations, including 311 calls reporting flooding on streets and in basements.
In addition to historical flood data, the Cicero story maps illustrate how green infrastructure could help mitigate future floods — and where the flood water might flow and accumulate in the future if no action is taken. In addition, the science team pointed out that adding more green space in flood-susceptible neighborhoods would also reduce the effects of extreme heat — a win-win solution.
A flood of experience
This work is a natural outcome for Wadhwa, the son of a hydropower engineer, who grew up surrounded by sounds of rushing Himalayan river waters. When his father took him to job sites in rural India, he’d watch as the wild, untamed river carved new paths and valleys as it meandered through the mountains. He was awed by the way his father and other engineers channeled the water’s flow by constructing dams, converting the water’s relentless energy to generate electricity for communities to thrive.
While hydroelectric dams can mitigate flooding, they can also cause it when water spills over the top, a phenomenon known as overtopping. Wadhwa didn’t see why that had to happen. “That’s where I thought, ‘OK, this is something I am interested in studying and addressing,’” he said. What began as a childhood wonder became a deep sense of purpose.
While working on his PhD at the Vellore Institute of Technology and research assistantship in the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru in India, he developed a flood forecasting system for Vellore and Bangalore. Now, he’s using his expertise to help the Chicago metro area in similar ways.
And in at least one area, he’s succeeded. Huguenin described Wadhwa’s work as “really amazing, very thorough. I was very happy that we got matched to his expertise. We were a really good team.”
Read more about the project on AGU Thriving Earth Exchange’s website: https://thrivingearthexchange.org/project/cicero-il/#desc_brief
Author: Jeanie Chung