Flooding is one of the costliest types of natural disasters in the United States. Across the Mid-Atlantic region, extreme precipitation-induced flooding has occurred nearly every season since 2018, leading to property damage, business disruptions, injuries, and loss of life. These events are expected to worsen into the future as a consequence of climate change, and communities throughout the region will continue to incur significant losses unless they undertake enhancements in stormwater planning and management to mitigate current and future flood risk. However, planning for extreme precipitation poses a broad set of challenges to stormwater management agencies.

This Perspective presents key information needs for these agencies that could help lower barriers to understanding climate change and operationalizing climate information in local policies, regulations, and infrastructure design. Recommendations for applied research that would address these barriers and support stormwater management agencies in more effective climate adaptation at local, regional, and national scales are also described.

Read the full article about stormwater management by Michelle E. Miro and Krista Romita Grocholski at RAND Corporation.