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Aerial view of a water treatment facility surrounded by trees and water, with construction equipment and buildings visible.Aerial view of a water treatment facility surrounded by trees and water, with construction equipment and buildings visible.

Making climate science actionable in Virginia

Hampton Roads Sanitation District assessed flood risk and climate impacts on 136 of its facilities, creating an 80-year capital plan to protect wastewater infrastructure for 2 million customers.

Client

Hampton Roads Sanitation District

Location

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Connect with an expert

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Mattias Wittenberg PE, PMP, BC.​WRE, REM
Senior Water Resources Engineer, Project Manager

Economic risk modeling to protect critical infrastructure from future flooding 

Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) faces severe flooding vulnerability from land subsidence, rising sea levels and intensifying storms. To future-proof its systems, HRSD worked to analyze current and future flood exposure through the year 2100.  

Comprehensive flood risk assessment 

Analysis identified 72 facilities considered at-risk to damaging water levels from potential storm surges and rainfall sources. 

Economic risk quantification 

A FEMA-accepted benefit-cost methodology quantified flood risk in dollar terms, enhancing efficient decision-making. 

Optimized capital investment schedule 

Multi-objective optimization was used to evaluate over 1 million possible capital improvement schedules for 57 facilities.  

Tailored mitigation solutions 

Teams evaluated resilient actions and the cost impli­ca­tions associated, helping to inform HRSD’s capital planning process. 

Equipped with actionable climate science, HRSD has identified solutions to protect its facilities over the next 80 years to address the complex, multimillion dollar risk posed by current and future flood exposure. HRSD will implement flood resilience projects as necessary to protect its at-risk facilities, allowing the utility to save and invest for the future with the confidence to make risk-based decisions. 

Curious to learn more? 

Connect with an expert to learn more about how we delivered this project.

Wittenberg_Matthias.jpg

Mattias Wittenberg

Senior Water Resources Engineer, Project Manager

Matthias has extensive experience in the planning, design and optimization of wastewater collection and treatment systems.

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