My Project Story: Sea Level Wise

Dewberry Senior Coastal Scientist Brian Batten shares the story of our work on Virginia Beach's Sea Level Wise strategy.

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Hi, I’m Brian Batten, a senior coastal scientist and client manager for Dewberry in the Richmond, Virginia, office. This is my project story.

The city of Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads region in Virginia has experienced increased flooding over the last few decades. In fact, this region has the highest rate of relative sea level rise on the east coast. For context, sea level has increased by almost a foot over the last 50 years, and it’s expected that it will increase by three feet around the year 2075. Local officials have been seeing an increase in complaints from residents to report flooding across roadways, in businesses and homes, and along densely populated areas at an alarming rate.

Recognizing the issue, the city hired us to understand the expected impacts of additional flooding, and use this understanding to develop an adaptation framework to improve the city’s resilience and maintain their vibrant and thriving attractions, including their clean beach fronts, military installations, and family-friendly community. This analysis, framework, and strategy became known as Sea Level Wise.

While Virginia Beach recognizes the realities associated with increasing sea level and is taking significant action, no single strategy can address the problem. Our integrated adaptation framework consists of four complementary themes, each with a specific approach to flood risk management. The layers are designed to support each other, combining structural and non-structural measures to achieve comprehensive flood protection across a range of future conditions. The framework consists of natural mitigations, like preserving open space, beach nourishment, and marsh restoration. It also increases community preparedness through education and outreach as well as promoting economic resilience; creating engineered defenses like storm surge barriers, sea walls, and levees; and finally adapting structures, which includes regulating building and development, and increased design standards to minimize future infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Virginia Beach has a diverse landscape that is divided into four watersheds, each of which has specific flooding challenges. Flood waters enter the city from the Atlantic Ocean, and the largest and second largest estuaries in the United States, the Chesapeake Bay, and Albemarle-Pamlico Sound. Strategies were tailored to each watershed to reflect their unique physical characteristics, land use, and flood dynamics.

We viewed input from the local stakeholders and public as an integral part of the study. Public meetings were held at key junctures to communicate findings and gather feedback, and these viewpoints were included in the study report. A lot of effort was made so that the report presented the full story of the challenge ahead, the strategies, and the commitment by the city to a range of audiences – even still, the report can be daunting given the complexity of the issue. To further improve accessibility to the public, we developed an interactive online summary to help guide citizens through the process and explain the challenge. Using ArcGIS software, the site provides an essential background on the Sea Level Wise, as told through interactive maps, graphics, and renderings to provide visual representations of how the community can adapt to this risk in the short and long term.

As someone who has spent over a decade working on sea level rise, being able to play a role helping Virginia Beach understand and develop strategies so that generations to come can enjoy the beauty of the community, has been one of the most rewarding projects of my career. While implementing every element of this strategy is a long-term commitment, the recognition of the problem, and taking action today to work towards a more resilient community is a critical step in the right direction.

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