SC Water for People & Env. Committee: Coastal Groundwater Flooding
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Sierra Club: Water for People & Environment Committee
Webinar: Coastal Groundwater Flooding
Monday, November 10, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Link to register:
Meeting Registration - Zoom
This is the Water for People & Environment Committee's meeting for all Texans interested in water issues, advocacy, organizing and networking.
November 10 Topic:
Coastal Groundwater Flooding
Presentation by Dr. Dorina Murgulet, with the Center for Water Supply Studies at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi.
Bio: Dr. Dorina Murgulet leads the Center for Water Supply Studies at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, where she works with communities to protect coastal water and infrastructure. Her research focuses on groundwater and surface water connections, groundwater flooding, and pollution pathways from neighborhoods to bays. She has led numerous state and federal projects and trains the next generation of coastal scientists.
Presentation overview: Many Texans think of flooding as water coming from the sky or the bay. But on low-lying barrier islands, water also comes up from below. When rain soaks in and higher-than-normal tides press in from the coast, the water table can reach the ground surface, flooding streets, lawns, and septic fields even on sunny days. In this talk, she will break down the main drivers (e.g., rainfall, soil wetness, tides) and why island shape and sediments make some places more vulnerable than others. She will then show a practical forecasting approach we built for Texas barrier islands that uses readily available information such as rain gauges, soil-moisture estimates, and tide/sea-level pressure, to anticipate short-lead "high water-table" periods. Case examples illustrate how this can help residents and local agencies plan around yard flooding, septic backups, and roadbed saturation. The goal is simple: give communities an easy way to understand groundwater flooding and a tool to act before it becomes a problem.