Dr. Qizhong (George) Guo and Mr. Carlos Correa from Rutgers Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, developed a hydrologic model to evaluate the effects of green infrastructure on flood mitigation in the Raritan River. The model focuses on watershed management area (WMA) 8 comprising the North and South Branches of the Raritan and on a portion of the Lower Raritan watershed (WMA 9) with Manville as the focus municipality.
The model incorporates precipitation records from the New Jersey State Climatologist office, United States Geological Survey discharge records, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s landuse cover maps and topographical contour, which was imported from the GIS database. The model analyzes three different green infrastructure scenarios and evaluates their costs. Further research is needed to improve understanding of the costs and benefits of green infrastructure.
This study was funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through a grant awarded to Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Dr. Guo discussed his work at the RU on the Raritan conference (8th Annual Sustainable Raritan Conference) in New Brunswick on June 10, 2016.
To read the full article on the assessment model click here: The Impacts of Green Infrastructure on Flood Level Reduction for The Raritan River: Modeling Assessment and review a related article by Dr. Guo on our Resources Page. For more information contact Dr. Guo at qguo@rutgers.edu.