Concurrent Sessions A: Co-Benefits of Barrier Removal: Fish Passage and Public Safety - Flood Resiliency, Aquatic Organism Passage, Critical Infrastructure, and Economics
A retrospective case study was conducted in the Upper White River subbasin in Vermont (Unthank et al 2012) that examined persistence of traditional hydraulic and stream simulation designs following the record flood flows from Tropical Storm Irene that occurred in August 2011. Analysis indicated that extensive damage to road infrastructure in this study area was largely avoided in areas where the stream simulation design approach was implemented, as did several other localized case studies from across New England. Benefit/cost analyses suggest that a relatively modest increase in initial investment to implement stream simulation designs to provide aquatic organism passage yield substantial societal benefits. When considering the overall comparative economic, social and natural resource costs to communities caused by crossing and/or road failure due to undersized road-stream crossings, adoption of stream simulation design is comparatively inexpensive when examined over a multi-year time frame. Hydraulic analysis results of stream simulation designed structures surviving Tropical Storm Irene will be presented along with a series of regulatory, policy and funding recommendations to help agencies, municipalities and communities make smart infrastructure and aquatic resource investments that reduce future road and stream crossing failures and associated impacts, and to help provide biological resilience and infrastructural persistence in the face of increased frequency and severity of flood events modeled under climate change
