Estimating impacts of recurring flooding on roadway networks: a Norfolk, Virginia case study

Climate change and sea level rise have increased the frequency severity of flooding events in coastal communities. This study quantifies transportation impacts recurring using crowdsourced traffic flood incident data. Agency-provided continuous count station volume data at 12 locations is supplemented by crowd-sourced from location-based apps Norfolk, Virginia, to assess recurrent on flow. A random forest predictive model utilizing roadway features, flow characteristics, hydrological as inputs scales spatial extent 7736 segments. Modeling results suggest that between January 2017 August 2018, City Norfolk reported reduced 24 h citywide vehicle-hours travel (VHT) 3%, average. To examine temporal variation impacts, reports collected navigation app Waze 2018 were also analyzed. local scale show weekday afternoon evening periods, flood-impacted areas experience a statistically significant 7% reduction VHT 12% vehicle-miles traveled, These vary across types, with substantial decline volumes freeways, while principal arterials during periods. Results analyzing more prudent impact temporally spatially heterogeneous. Furthermore, countermeasures mitigate require dynamic strategy can adapt conditions various time periods specific locations.