SIUE Team Works to Create Long-Term Watershed Plan to Reduce Flooding Hazards
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville along with Heartland Conservancy, local, state and federal partners, are working to create a long-term watershed plan to address flooding issues and improve drainage and water quality at the Prairie Du Pont Creek Watershed in St. Clair County. The area has suffered extreme flooding several times in the past decade, leading to repeated structural damage to homes and businesses, water quality concerns, and overwhelming sanitary sewer function, among other issues.
“In order to reduce flooding hazard and improve water quality, it is important to manage water flow within urban areas as well as in the entire watershed,” Rohan Benjankar, PhD, associate professor and graduate program director in the School of Engineering, and SIUE’s lead researcher on the project.
Benjankar and the SIUE team developed integrated watershed hydrological and hydraulic models to study flood hazards in the watershed and identify the areas at greatest risk for flooding. Modeling is a backbone tool to developing a strategy for watershed management for the future.
Through funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), SIUE along with Heartland Conservancy will develop a comprehensive flood management strategy from the model result analyses, data collected and input from local residents and officials. This plan will detail recommendations for decreasing flood damage, and the models can also be used for improving water quality, reducing soil erosion, and restoring fish and aquatic habitats.
The two-year project has provided SIUE graduate students a valuable learning opportunity through their work supporting the project.
“This project funded part of the two students’ graduate study,” said Benjankar, “It provided them with valuable experiences on process-based modeling for watershed management to tackle real-world problems. Perhaps most important of all, the project also allowed the students to contribute to work that will ultimately improve the quality of life for those living in the region.”
Photo: Rohan Benjankar, PhD, associate professor and graduate program director in the School of Engineering.
