Center for Neighborhood Launches Urban Flooding Baseline Tool

This week, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) launched The Urban Flooding Baseline Tool. The newly released tool provides community residents, and municipal and regional leaders with in-depth flooding data in the south suburban region to assist with stormwater planning efforts.

Since the initiation of this project, SSMMA has partnered with CNT to collect flooding data across seven municipalities in the Calumet Region. By deploying residents directly in these communities, during or after stormwater events, CNT was able to collect over 4,000 stormwater photos to document the impacts of flooding in the south suburban area. The stormwater photos along with data can be found here.

Cyatharine Alias, Manager of Community Infrastructure & Resilience, and Preeti Shankar, Managing Director of Urban Analytics at CNT write, "FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps create floodplains based on flooding from bodies of water. But based on personal experiences and relationships with residents and local professionals, CNT knew that many homes in the Chicagoland area are impacted by flooding despite being outside of flood plains. The reality that flooding occurs outside of FEMA Floodplains posed a significant challenge for homeowners and renters who could not access enough funds for post-flooding recovery".

CNT began work around stormwater management in the south suburbs after a 2013 flooding disaster in Cook County severely impacted the Calumet region and is elated to share this tool with the public in hopes of bringing awareness and solutions to flooding in the Calumet Region.

• Urban Flooding Baseline Tool Explores the ‘Where’ and ‘Why’ of Urban Flooding, and Who Is Most Impacted