The Chesterfield Heights neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia, has lengthy been stricken by flooding. Throughout excessive tide, water typically blocks one among solely two roads into the group. And through storms, it swimming pools in folks’s basements.
However reduction is now in sight — thanks largely to a bunch of scholars.
Mujde Erten-Unal is an affiliate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Outdated Dominion College.
Eight years in the past, her class labored with structure college students from Hampton College to design options to the neighborhood’s flooding woes.
“So the scholars checked out totally different options,” Erten-Unal says.
And so they created a listing of suggestions. It included putting in cisterns, elevating the flood-prone street, and making a wetland alongside the shore to soak up stormwater.
Now lots of these options are being applied. The scholars’ designs had been included in a federal grant proposal that secured greater than $100 million for a flood prevention challenge within the space.
That challenge is nearing completion. And Erten-Unal says the ultimate design displays quite a lot of the scholars’ concepts.
“So it was a really rewarding expertise,” she says.
And the scholars have the satisfaction of realizing that their work helps to enhance residents’ lives.
Reporting credit score: ChavoBart Digital Media
