RiverSmart Communities is an integrated research and extension project to research and disseminate flood mitigation and protection options that work with, rather than against, natural fluvial and geomorphological processes.

Funding: University of Massachusetts Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment.

Eve Vogel
Lead Investigator
Eve Vogel
Institutional and Policy Research
RiverSmart Principal Investigator for Policy and Institutional Research
Associate Professor, Geography
Department of Geosciences
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Christine Hatch
Lead Investigator
Christine Hatch
Science of Fluvial Geomorphology
RiverSmart Principal Investigator for River Science Research and Extension
Extension Assistant Professor
Department of Geosciences
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Email: chatch@geo.umass.edu(link sends e-mail)
Tel: (413) 577-2245
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Project Summary

Problem

New England residents, landowners, infrastructure and businesses located along rivers or in river valleys are frequently impacted by damaging floods. Commonly, mitigation and restoration focuses on alteration of channel infrastructure (e.g. dams, levees, revetments, channel straightening), and replacement of critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and culverts. Yet these approaches can increase risk and potential scale of flood hazards downstream, re-create vulnerable infrastructure, and disrupt ecological function. In the last few decades, other regions of the country have moved toward flood mitigation and protection that work with, rather than against, natural fluvial and geomorphological processes. These provide longer-term flood protection at lower cost, and concurrently support environmental, fish and wildlife goals. New England has been slow to make this transition, for at least two reasons: there has been relatively slow dissemination of fluvial-geomorphological knowledge and understanding in this region; and there is even greater jurisdictional fragmentation here, rooted in the region’s tradition of “home rule” in which towns, as well as states and federal agencies, have authority over land use.

Approach

RiverSmart will address these issues on two fronts simultaneously. First, scientific investigations will link fluvial geomorphology to New England-specific climate, landscape, ecology, population, and infrastructure to develop, codify and evaluate best management practices for flood prevention and post-flood restoration. Second, our institutional investigation will uncover challenges and constraints caused by distinct jurisdictional and institutional fragmentation, highlighting successful strategies for overcoming these. Our extension work will synthesize this much-needed scientific and institutional knowledge into a series of products to be
 disseminated to towns, government officials, landowners, businesses, environmental organizations, road crews, and others.

Relationship between RiverSmart’s research, extension and evaluation activities

Riversmart communities schematic
Riversmart communities schematic
People

Lead Investigators

  • Eve Vogel, Assistant Professor, UMass Amherst Geosciences
  • Christine Hatch, Extension Assistant Professor, UMass Amherst Geosciences

Past Student Researchers

  • Nicole Gillett, Noah Slovin, Alexander Schwartz, UMass Amherst Geosciences - Science of Fluvial Geomorphology
  • Daphne Chang, Mt Holyoke College Environmental Studies- Institutional and Policy Research
  • Laurel Payne, Smith College Environmental Policy and Science - Institutional and Policy Research
  • Cecilia Frisardi, Gina Accorsi, Nayha Chopra-Tandon - 2011-2012 Institutional and Policy Research

UMass Project Support Team

  • Steve Mabee - Massachusetts State Geologist, UMass Amherst Department of Geosciences
  • Scott Jackson - Extension Associate Professor, UMass Amherst Department of Environmental Conservation
  • Keith Nislow - Adjunct Associate Professor, UMass Amherst Dept. of Environmental Conservation; Research Fisheries Biologist, US Forest Service, Northern Research Station
  • Paula Rees - Director, Massachusetts Water Resources Research Center

Scientific Research Advisory Committee

  • Steve Mabee, Chair - Massachusetts State Geologist, UMass Amherst Department of Geosciences
  • Keith Nislow - Adjunct Associate Professor, UMass Amherst Dept. of Environmental Conservation; Research Fisheries Biologist, US Forest Service, Northern Research Station
  • Beth Lambert - River Restoration Scientist, Division of Ecological Restoration, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game
  • Michael Marcus - Senior Scientist, Principal; New England Environmental Inc., Amherst, MA
  • Peter Skidmore, P.G. - Geomorphologist, Principal; Skidmore Restoration Consulting, LLC

Institutional Research Advisory Committee

  • Christopher Sneddon, Chair – Associate Professor, Departments of Geography and Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College
  • Rebecca Lave - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana University
  • Carolyn Ness - Select Board, Deerfield; Franklin Conservation District; Chair, Creating Resilient Communities: Planning Today to Build Resilient Communities Tomorrow
  • Andrew Fisk - Executive Director, Connecticut River Watershed Council
  • Debbie Shriver - Deborah Shriver Consulting

Extension Advisory Committee

  • Scott Jackson, Chair - Extension Associate Professor, UMass Amherst Department of Environmental Conservation; Extension Faculty Liason
  • Rebecca Haney - Coastal Geologist, Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
  • Peter Connors - P.E., Massachusetts Department of Transportation
  • Mike Kline - State Rivers Program Manager, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
  • Carrie Banks - Stream Team and Westfield River Wild and Scenic Committee Coordinator, Division of Ecological Restoration, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game
What we Learned

On the Institutional/policy side of the RiverSmart Communities Project, we researched groups and programs that are successfully helping communities to become river-smart.

We profile three of these:

We are using our learning to inform policy recommendations in the publication Supporting New England Communities to Become River-Smart: Policies and Programs that can Help New England Towns Thrive Despite River Floods