During the 2018-19 school year 116 local classes participated in the Flood Mapping — Building Resilience in Our Communities project. For the 2019-20 school year, we encourage classes throughout the Hampton Roads region to join other citizen scientists in mapping nuisance flooding events. Please see the FAQ for more information.
WHRO encourages local classes, to participate in the Flood Mapping – Building Resilience in Our Communities project — an initiative to map flooding on school campuses and neighborhoods-during the 2019-20 school year.
The project is open to any class in Hampton Roads.
Each student will conduct quarterly measurements, create a final presentation on a recommended or related topic, and sign a pledge to do their part to create a community that is resilient to the effects of flooding.
Requirements are outlined more fully in the FAQ.
All students need some type of smart device with a data plan (not just a Wi-Fi enabled device) to perform the quarterly measurements described below.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide stipends to participating classes this year.
For more information, please e-mail floodmapping@whro.org.
Catch the King was a citizen science GPS data collection effort centered in Hampton Roads during the fall of 2017 and 2018 that sought to map the year's highest astronomical tide, known as the "King Tide." Using the Sea Level Rise app, volunteers in a dozen Hampton Roads cities and counties participated in the event. The goal of the effort was to validate and improve predictive models for future forecasting of increasingly pervasive "nuisance" flooding. Given the popularity of the 2017 event, Catch the King will now be an annual activity.
Classes that are interested in the Flood Mapping — Building Resilience in Our Communities project this year are strongly encouraged to participate in the 2019 Catch the King event, on Sunday October 27, but it is not mandatory.
The Sea Level Rise app was developed by Concursive Corporation, a privately held open source software development and solutions company headquartered in Norfolk in partnership with Wetlands Watch of Norfolk and is available free-of-charge on iTunes and Google Play.
Flood Mapping — Building Resilience in Our Communities is made possible in part with funding from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and the Batten Environmental Education Initiative.
Explore the astronomical high tide, or "King Tide," forecasted for the morning of October 27, 2019, which will serve as a baseline to demonstrate what scientists believe will constitute low tide in approximately fifty years.
Guide students as they capture non-tidal flood data and map points. Then, report findings to help enhance the accuracy of tidal inundation models.
This content was made possible through the Batten Environmental Education Initiative - dedicated to educating Virginia's environmental stewards of tomorrow.