Tidal Flooding Visualized

Aaron Fisher | August 6, 2024

Elevated water levels and water tables present a unique problem. Our built infrastructure is predicated on water flowing from high to low. However, this logic falls apart when we are at or below water level. Simply put you can’t drive on a road if it’s underwater.

This problem can be due to normal tidal variations or storm surge. It is also getting measurably worse because of sea level rise and to a lesser degree land subsidence. And with a system that is designed to be one-way becomes, as the Blue Man Group states: interactive, we have problems.

When water has no place to more problematically goes backwards infrastructure and roads begin to fail normal living becomes impossible. The Washington Post has a great visual article on this topic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2024/coastal-flooding-carolina-beach-videos/

Looking ahead though if you are in an area that is or will be subject to this kind of temporary and ephemeral flooding, your infrastructure should be built to this reality. We feel that PaveDrain is a great solution to this; while it won’t stop the flooding, flooding doesn’t create additional problems like road cracking and potholes.

It will get wet, it may be underwater, but it should still be functional.