Barbara Doll

Rivers are the lifeblood of the communities throughout eastern North Carolina. The communities that occupy the edges of waterways owe their location and existence to the abundant resources provided by their corresponding rivers, tributaries, and floodplains. These natural features have made lasting physical and cultural impressions that continue to shape and influence both local community and greater region. Recognizing that rivers and communities are inseparable, the processes and products outlined in the following proposal are guided by a process referred to as a ????????????????floodprint????????????????????????????????? a landscape planning approach developed by the NC State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab that addresses land/water relationships, including the powerful forces associated with flooding. The goal of each Community Floodprint is to help increase social and physical resilience within their respective focus area(s), specifically through recommending strategies that reduce flood risk, improve public safety, and enhance long-term environmental function within historically flood-prone areas. All aspects of the process aspire to co-create actionable plans used to attract resources that enable communities to forge ahead through the difficult tasks of rebuilding and preparing for future natural disasters.

NC Sea Grant and NCSU BAE will participate in a multidisciplinary collaborative project led by the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop quantitative, scenario-based modeling for the Roanoke River basin using publicly available models that are commonly specified for reservoirs. The overall purpose of the modeling effort will be to assess ongoing climate change, as well as key impacts, uncertainties, and risk to stakeholder values. Specific objectives of the project are to: (1) Identify changes in the timing, magnitude, duration, and frequency of decision-relevant inflows into Kerr Reservoir across the period of record; (2) Characterize the modeled inflows into Kerr Reservoir based on climate change scenarios from the USGS Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) for 1952-2099; (3) Assess past and future floodplain hydrology and floodplain inundation, incorporating PRMS results into Corps??? suite of models (HEC Reservoir Simulation Model, HEC RAS); (4) Examine implications for downstream floodplain vegetation and fisheries using the Corps??? spatial ecosystem process model and (5) Characterize risk of dam management and downstream restoration activities with projections of likely recurrence of high flow events within and across years. NC Sea Grant and NCSU BAE will run the hydrodynamic models and assess hydrology impacts in the basin.

The North Carolina Sea Grant College Program integrates three university functions ?????????????????? research, education and outreach ?????????????????? into a cohesive, innovative, program that addresses priorities of the state??????????????????s numerous coastal communities. These include, but are not limited to: communities of individuals located along the 300 miles of oceanfront shoreline and those within the 20 counties designated by the Coastal Area Management Act; coastal and estuarine water- and land-based industries; the vast natural environmental resources including the 2.3 million acres of estuarine habitat that provide important ecological and cultural resources for the entire state. North Carolina Sea Grant (NCSG) positions itself at this intersection of research and outreach, working to ensure results are translated to actionable information in support of the varied stakeholders invested in North Carolina??????????????????s coast. Taking discoveries, demonstrations and experiential knowledge developed by experts and delivering those results to identified audiences is a model our program embodies. These efforts support improved understanding and appreciation of the near-shore and coastal ocean environment and the sustainable use and development of its resources. We join other coastal and Great Lakes states in a national network of Sea Grant universities charged with meeting the needs of society in our home state, our regions, and the nation as a whole.

NC State University will conduct water quality monitoring to support a paired watershed study of two ponds located at Riverside High School in Durham, N.C. The two existing stormwater ponds were constructed in approximately 1990 and drain watersheds nearly equal in size (approximately 52 acres) and development characteristics. One pond is completely breached and the other is currently at a high risk of failure due to outlet clogging combined with an overgrowth of trees on the earthen embankment. The Durham Soil & Water Conservation District will restore one pond to its original condition while the second pond will be retrofitted with several modern stormwater enhancements (e.g. littoral shelf with wetland plants, forebay, deep and shallow water zones, secondary spillways, and reuse of water). Prior to the retrofit and repair work, NCSU will install automated samplers to monitor water quality during both base flow and storm flow for a one-year calibration period. Following the repair and retrofit work, sampling will be restarted and continue for 12-18 months to assess the effectiveness of the pond enhancements.

The NC Division of Mitigation Services requests the services of NC State University (NCSU) for production of stream restoration mitigation planning, design, construction oversight and monitoring on sites identified and managed under DMS. DMS and NCSU wish to establish a working relationship for production of stream and wetland restoration related work for the Millstone Creek Mitigation Project. This project includes approximately 2100 lf of Millstone Creek (main stem), two low-order highly incised tributaries (400 lf and 600 lf), and existing wetland areas. Millstone Creek and the tributaries will be restored using innovative practices designed to maximize mitigation credit, functional uplift, habitat availability and pollutant removal. NC Sea Grant and the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering will work with the DMS to prepare restoration design(s) and a mitigation plan. In addition, NCSU will conduct construction oversight and monitoring as necessary to ensure proper installation and long-term efficacy of the restoration projects. The services associated with this work may include monitoring and assessment of water quality, biotic community, stream morphology, hydrology, habitat, structure, and bank condition and other technical services/support. Services provided will be undertaken to support mitigation project implementation and required regulatory monitoring. In addition, monitoring activities will be conducted in a manner to gauge the effectiveness of the restoration approach with a purpose of enhancing future mitigation design and construction.

Recent extreme rainfall events have revealed the transportation network??????????????????s vulnerabilities to road washouts. Currently, NC DOT reacts to these problems as are reported from the field. This inability to predict where washouts are likely to occur leads to long response times and inefficient positioning of resources. The availability of high quality statewide elevation data, historical rainfall records and advances in computer processing presents the opportunity to modify and develop programs to predict where washouts are likely to occur during extreme rainfall events. The purpose of this project is to develop models and test several approaches for predicting crossing washouts based on forecasted rainfall. A team of NCSU BAE engineers will first characterize and analyze historical washouts during extreme events. Then, detailed HEC-HMS models will be developed and calibrated and validated for one watershed in each physiographic region. A user interface will be created to run the models using forecasted rainfall, relate the predicted discharge to potential washouts using water surface elevation-discharge relationships, and then output the results for display in a GIS map. The model output for a large number of historical events will then be used to test different machine learning algorithms for their ability to predict discharge and potential washout locations. The information on historical washouts and the model predictions will be used to develop a network of ????????????????safe??????????????? routes for each watershed. The results will help determine if existing hydrologic models can be leveraged to accurately predict potential washout locations and to evaluate if machine learning technology can be employed for accurate flood prediction. This project has the potential to substantially enhance NC DOT??????????????????s ability to respond to storm events and position resources appropriately. Results will be disseminated in NC DOT meetings, a training workshop for NC DOT personnel, and through extension factsheets and academic publications.

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate and evaluate a regenerative stormwater conveyance (RSC) practice on a swine and beef farm in Randolph county. Discharge from two similar streams will be monitored prior to and following the installation of an RSC on one of the streams. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loading in each stream will be statistically compared to determine the effectiveness of the RSC. Results will be presented in research articles and fact sheets.

The proposed research will utilize geospatial and statistical analyses combined with water quality modeling to evaluate a large water quality database for streams located within the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The data will be provided by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Services (CMSWS) including 15 years of monthly grab samples, data from automated ISCO samplers, data collected at YSI monitoring stations and annual macroinvertebrate data. The overall goal of the proposed project is to identify future monitoring, management and planning decisions that North Carolina municipalities can employ to better protect and restore urban stream water quality. To achieve this goal, extensive statistical analyses and watershed modeling will be conducted. In addition, contemporary watershed models and watershed pollutant load estimation tools will be employed to individual sub-watersheds of specific stream sampling locations in order to identify which models and tools best predict water quality of Charlotte??????????????????s highly urbanized streams.

Plastics currently comprise the bulk of marine debris. Over the last decade, researchers have documented the proliferation of plastics (both macro and micro) in aquatic environments around the globe. However, little sampling and quantification of plastics in North Carolina coastal rivers and estuaries has been conducted. Recent research results vary considerably, both spatially and temporally, and sample collection procedures and reporting methods also differ widely. North Carolina Sea Grant in partnership with other university programs and environmental groups proposes to conduct a variety of field sampling protocols for both macro and micro plastics in the Neuse River Basin. Specifically, netting, trawling and/or regular trash removal from gridded sample sites will be implemented over a one year period at 15 US Geological Survey stream gage monitoring sites in the basin. The purpose of this effort is to better understand the concentration and loadings of plastics reaching the lower Neuse River and entering the Pamlico Sound. This work will enable us to determine the relative contributions based on the scale and land-use characteristics of the watersheds and the sampling protocols that best fit North Carolina waterways based on their size, flow and access.

NCSU will conduct streambank erosion studies along 16 eroded stream reaches in the Ridge and Valley (Clinch, Powell and Holston Rivers) and Blue Ridge (New River) physiographic regions of Virginia. The purpose of this work is to help prioritize implementation of conservation practices through the NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife and EQIP Program that will prioritized for protecting and improving habitat for the Eastern Hellbender population. The BANCS model (Bank Assessment for Non-point Source Consequences of Sediment) and annual streambank measurements will be conducted in order to develop a regional streambank erosion rate curve for each physiographic region. The erosion rating curve will be used to provide an estimate of sediment loading from streambank erosion in Eastern Hellbender watersheds. In addition, streambank sediment will be sampled and laboratory analyses will be performed to determine the associated load of nutrients from streambank erosion.