The FIMs (flood inundation mapping) project focuses on conducting community-based research to increase the use and understanding of FIMs tools and technologies and integrate their use into local preparation and planning efforts. The intended outcomes and impacts of this work are to increase community understanding of flood mapping, facilitate both incident response and long-term community planning and, more broadly, improve community health and well-being related to climate, flooding, and socio-economic inequalities. The project intends to build bridges across stakeholders, enhance networks to increase the use and understanding of FIMS, develop an evaluative framework for FIMS information, products, and tools, and facilitate a feedback loop that transfers project impacts and operational outcomes across the network and between the Weather Program Office and National Weather Service offices within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The community engagement portion of the project focuses on the communities of Bladensburg and Edmonston, Shady Side-Deale, and Westernport, MD. EFC is working directly with Westernport to gain a better understanding of the community’s flooding issues and concerns, to learn about how residents currently receive information about flood events, and to identify new communication pathways and flood information needs.
Partners:
University of Maryland - Center for Environmental Science
University of Maryland Sea Grant Extension
US Department of Commerce - NOAA
UMD Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice (SIRJ) Lab
Team Members:
Michelle Kokolis
Kristin Mielcarek