Interior Drainage Hydrology & Hydraulics for the Design of a Federal Flood Risk Management Project in Downtown Norfolk

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in cooperation with the City of Norfolk intends to build a coastal storm risk management project along the City’s Eastern Branch of Elizabeth River shoreline. This project along with other City’s flood mitigation projects such as the St. Paul’s Blue/Greenway transformation project could potentially impact the interior drainage system within this watershed.

This study intends to address the impacts concerning the interior drainage hydrological and hydraulic (H&H) processes including the pre-existing hydrology and hydraulic condition, near future land-use transformations and construction activities on the St. Paul’s area, and future climate conditions on the Federal Flood Risk Management Project.

The focus of this presentation is to:

  1. Describe the integration of the previously developed stormwater models for larger areas into a 1D/2D XPSWMM stormwater model covering this interior drainage system and assessment of the H&H condition.
  2. Discuss changes to the watershed that the St. Paul’s redevelopment and Blue/Greenway resilience projects would make by introducing land-use transformations and proposing various stormwater elements such as building resilience ponds and open channels and replacing the pre-existing stormwater systems and comparison with the existing condition.
  3. Evaluate the pumping capacities for multiple pump stations anticipated for the Federal Flood Risk Management Project in Downtown Norfolk using the integrated 1D/2D XPSWMM model and analysis of the impacts on the interior drainage system.