The need for stormwater management and flood mitigation efforts within a community are highlighted when severe and extreme weather causes flood conditions that damage public and private property. However, it can still be difficult for residents to understand why flooding occurs and how various infrastructure helps mitigate the impact. While our technical experts leverage modeling software to determine how much rain causes flooding and where the floodwaters travel, it can be even more impactful to demonstrate this work in a tangible way.
To achieve this, our stormwater experts recently acquired the Ward’s® Stormwater Floodplain Simulation System water table. The water table was developed as an educational and outreach tool to demonstrate how a variety of factors within a watershed impact stormwater runoff and flood risk. The initial intent was to use the floodplain simulation at a client’s public engagement event to demonstrate to residents how a new levee would increase flood protection. However, after some of our early career staff learned about the water table resource, they proposed an interactive presentation for the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) 2025 Annual Conference & Exhibit held in January.
“The presentations at conferences are not always tailored to ascending professionals,” said Kitty Lovell, Engineer. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to create a presentation for ascending professionals that was fun and maybe a little messy.”
Kitty and Leah Finn-Erb, Technical Specialist, developed the topic, designed the session, learned how to operate the flood simulation table, and created the interactive simulation scenario. They then enlisted the seasoned expertise of Senior Technical Leader Joseph Kirby, PE, CFM, Senior Technical Manager Rich Niles, and Project Manager Garrett Bergey, CPMSM, to develop the presentation’s technical content and provide guidance on the simulation scenario.
After a short presentation from Joseph that detailed stormwater management strategies, community engagement, and funding, session attendees had a chance to put the flood mitigation strategies to the test to see which approach resulted in the least property damage. Severe weather events are simulated on the water table by pouring water over a platform that has holes to mimic rain drops. Without any mitigation strategies in place, the water flows into a river that winds across the middle of the table, filling floodplains and causing damage to infrastructure across the modeled town with buildings and even farm animals. Stormwater mitigation approaches are then simulated by placing various pieces of infrastructure (i.e., dams, levees, elevating structures) throughout the town to reduce the damage caused by inundation. As each simulation scenario was run, all the attendees — even the more seasoned stormwater professionals — were curious to see which approach would prove the best. Each group participating in the simulation runs were given a budget for each scenario and were scored based on the number of losses during the simulated flood to determine the winning approach.
“The best solution Leah and I came across while running a dozen or so simulations on the table was using all the sponges, which represented wetlands,” said Kitty.
“It was cool to see how each group used the set of options we gave them differently. There were so many combinations of different mitigation strategies with varying results,” said Leah. “It’s such a good way to show the different flood mitigation strategies. It’s one thing to explain to a client or community residents what a levee looks like and how it works. It is a whole different level of understanding if you can visualize it with a model like this.”
