Apply now to join our next cohort of Community Science Fellows and Community Leads!

Solving Climate Risk: Detangling the factors behind flooding in Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina

Warrenton, North Carolina

Featured image for the project, Solving Climate Risk: Detangling the factors behind flooding in Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina

Flooding has become a major risk threatening historic properties in Warrenton, North Carolina, particularly during intense storm events triggered recently by climate change. Despite awareness of these flooding issues, the factors causing overflowing waters and its consequences remain understudied, posing challenges for effective flood management and protection of historic properties during storms. Poor commercial drainage management has been identified as a potential driver contributing to extreme flooding in downtown areas, which may be the dominant factor in Warrenton. This project aims to investigate the major factors causing flooding in the Oak Chapel AME Church community located in Warrenton, North Carolina, with commercial drainage problems into consideration. The findings from this project will inform the development of flood management policies for the Oak Chapel AME community and its surroundings. The community envisions that the outcomes will educate communities about the underlying mechanisms of flooding and provide valuable insights for mitigating flood risk in communities facing similar threats.

Description

About the Community

Oak Chapel AME Church community is a group of concerned local residents (grassroots) dedicated to protecting their historical church properties from flooding-related problems. With over 150 years’ history, the church as one of African-American-historic icons in Warren County, is a cultural and spiritual home that nurtured and empowered thousands of local citizens. The majority of the church community is African American, ranging in age from teenagers to retired elders. Surrounding Oak Chapel AME church are commercial properties (i.e., drug stores, Dollar Trees, and gas stations) and residential houses, predominantly located in the upper hills. These commercial and residential areas potentially contain impaired drainage and septic systems, leading to overflowing waters in and around the church. During rainy seasons such as spring and early summer, large amounts of water and associated runoff accumulate within the church areas, threatening the integrity of the historic church properties. The potential loss of over 150 years of history and cultural heritage is a significant concern. It is very urgent to study the factors (i.e., natural reasons or commercial poor drainage maintenance) contributing to these overflowing water problems in the church community and develop a plan to effectively manage the flooding to protect the church property. 

About the Project 

The priority goal of this project is to identify factors contributing to the flooding in church areas and surrounding neighborhoods, specifically investigating whether poor commercial drainage maintenance is the primary cause of the overflowing waters. The project team will collaborate with the community scientists to collect data and determine the dominant drivers of the flooding in church communities. The outcome of the project will directly benefit the church communities, support entire Warreton communities prone to flooding, and promote the development of water management plans that protect the historical properties. The project is open to working with local teenagers, providing educational opportunities to understand hydrology and nurturing future scientific leaders. Throughout the project, data collection processes and major outcomes will be reported in local online media (i.e., Warrenist TV Channel, Radio Station WARR, Warren Record, Henderson Dispatch, etc.) to raise citizen awareness of the flooding problems, support communities beyond the church to resolve overflowing waters, and educate local citizens in scientific aspects. The data evidence will also be shared with potential government agencies or officials to develop an effective flood management plan that benefits not only the Warrenton communities but also areas facing similar challenges. 

Timeline and Milestones: 

Phase 1: Set up scopes and connect with the community scientist (duration 3 months)

Milestone A: accomplish the project description 

Milestone B: recruiting a qualified community scientist 

Phase 2: Design the project (duration 1-2 months)

Milestone C: communicate with the community scientist and solidify the timeline/ goals of the project 

Milestone D: develop actionable research plans and estimate study budgets 

Phase 3: Launch the project plans (duration 10-12 months)

Milestone E: coordinate with all team members to ensure all goals are met

Phase 4: Post-launch reports (duration 2 months)

Milestone F: social media and necessary research papers/ publications 

The project team aims to finish the project within 12-18 months.

Project Team

Community Leads

Cathy Alston-Kearney is committed to helping families thrive.  As founding executive director of Warren Family Institute, a family centered community development corporation, she worked for 20 plus years to help rural families navigate the challenges of chronically low wealth communities.  All of Cathy’s professional and personal endeavors are grounded in her faith.  She pastors Oak Chapel AME Church, a 154-year-old activist congregation with a mission to restore, empower, affirm and love people into living their best selves through a maturing relationship with Jesus Christ. She is also congregation coordinator for Living the Word Justice and Equity Ministry’s Warren Cohort. And she is the founder of Hope for Healing Ministries. Cathy and her late husband George have four adult children and “three glorious grandsons.”

Community Science Fellow

Tianyin (Tia) Ouyang is a doctoral student majoring in chemical oceanography at the University of Delaware. Her research primarily focuses on identifying the sources and controlling factors of chemicals (including nutrients, organic carbon, and potential pollutants) present in Delaware’s water bodies and aims to develop a conceptual model to predict chemical variations in estuarine and coastal water systems. Tia actively engages in outreach activities and serves as a co-leader of Citizen Advisory Committee outreach working groups at the Center for the Inland Bays to facilitate communication of research findings with diverse audiences on the benefits of achieving water quality goals, resolving community concerns, and improving natural resource health. She is very excited to extend her interests to becoming a fellow in a thriving exchange program and supporting community science research to make positive impacts. To find out more about Tia, see her personal website:https://tianyinouyang.weebly.com!

Scientist Wanted

Scientist Role

This project is seeking a community scientist with experience in flood risk, hydrology and/or municipal stormwater management to lead and support our project. We welcome scientists who are patient, supportive, creative, innovative, and passionate about working with communities and educating younger generations. Preference will be given to scientists with expertise in designing research procedures, solving scientific problems, collecting community data, and clearly presenting their processes. We are open to both in-person and hybrid working arrangements and highly value scientists with knowledge of Warren County’s hydrology and stormwater management policies. We are eager to have a credible scientist join us to lead the project from start to finish, with the goal of benefiting the community and educating the public.

Desired Skills and Qualifications: 

  • Climate scientist with experience of stormwater and municipal water management 
  • Experience and/or desire to participate in community education, outreach, and engagement 
  • Experience with citizen science 
  • Public speaking skills 
  • Strong listening and collaboration skills 
  • Willingness to connect science to local concerns 
  • Relaxed, easy-going personality with a good sense of humor 
  • The scientist should be able to visit the community in-person 

Thriving Earth Exchange asks all scientific partners to work with the community to help define a project with concrete local impact to which they can contribute as pro-bono volunteers and collaborators. This work can also position the scientists and communities to seek additional funding, together, for the next stage. 

Interested in volunteering as a scientist? Apply now! 

Collaborating Organization(s)

The Nurture Nature Center is a non-profit located in Easton, PA, that supports building community resiliency to environmental risk by leveraging the power of informal science education, art-centered approaches to learning, and community dialogue and networking. Started in response to flooding in Easton, NNC has over a decade of work related to flood outreach, education, and social science research. NNC is currently an AGU TEX Community Science Hub.