CUERE Fall 2024 Seminar Series
Dr. Claire Masteller, Washington University in St. Louis
Location
Online
CUERE Fall 2024 Seminar Series – Online Event
Date & Time
November 22, 2024, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Description
UMBC, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) Fall 2024 Seminar Series is free and open to the public. It is held Fridays at 2pm. All events are virtual.
“A legacy of neglect: Invisible floods on the MIssissippi River Floodplain”
Dr. Claire Masteller
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Abstract
A 2019 Consensus Report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine describes flooding as “the natural hazard with the greatest economic and social impact in the United States”. This is most acutely experienced by communities whose vulnerability to flood risk is compounded by an intersection of social factors. Accounting for highly variable urban flooding, and knock-on economic and social consequences for vulnerable communities, represents a key challenge centered on environmental justice and flood hazards. To address this challenge, community-engaged flood documentation has been shown to be an effective means of capturing neighborhood-scale flood risk.
Cahokia Heights, a predominantly Black community in East St. Louis, IL has suffered pervasive flooding for decades. However, despite repeated requests for mitigation efforts over this time period, no action has been taken towards addressing these hazards and their associated economic, social, and health-related impacts to date. In this contribution, we report the outcomes of community-engaged flood monitoring efforts, guided by resident experiences. Using data from our monitoring efforts, we develop and calibrate a hydraulic flood model. Using this calibrated model, we estimate the extent and variability of inundated areas across the Centreville community for a range of precipitation scenarios and identify areas impacted by persistent flooding. Results have also guided targeted sample collection to evaluate water quality and resident pollutant and pathogen exposure. We present initial soil pathogen prevalence and soil lead level data in the context of our calibrated flood model, as well as preliminary data on resident infection rates demonstrating the link between flood severity, pathogen exposure risk, and community health.
Bio
Professor Claire Masteller’s research investigates the processes and patterns that shape the surface of the Earth and other planetary bodies, or the "science of scenery. Masteller received her undergraduate degree in Earth and Environmental Science from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her PhD in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Helmholtz Center, German Research Center for Geoscience from 2017-2019. Her research group at Washington University explores links between landscape processes, form, and evolution with a suite of methods, including, but not limited to, laboratory experiments, numerical methods, field monitoring, and near-surface geophysics.
More details about the Fall 2024 CUERE Seminar Series are available at:
