Challenges and Opportunities in Bridging Hydrology Research and Practice: Co-Developing FloodSavvy Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Community Engagement
Day 1 Session 2 (1:30PM)
Presenters:
Kristin Raub (Global Resilience Institute, Northeastern University)
Irene Garousi-Nejad (CUAHSI)
Tony Castronova (CUAHSI)
This interactive workshop explores the challenges and opportunities of creating hydrology tools that address real-world decision-making needs. The session showcases the end-user engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration that led to the co-development of FloodSavvy, a publicly available decision support tool developed with community stakeholders in Vermont and Missouri.
Participants will explore and contrast NOAA’s National Water Model (NWM) with FloodSavvy to understand how hydrologic data can be translated into actionable flood risk insights. Through demonstrations and facilitated discussion, the workshop highlights how collaboration between hydrologists, social scientists, and end users—such as regional planners, town managers, watershed professionals, and state park staff—can help bridge the research-to-practice divide.
Participants will reflect on their own experiences and engage in collaborative brainstorming around barriers and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement in hydrology decision support service development.
The workshop welcomes participants from all disciplines and career stages who are interested in creating more usable, relevant, and impactful hydrology products.
Learning Outcomes:
- Articulate the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and end-user engagement in bridging the research-to-practice divide
- Identify strategies for incorporating community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration into their own research or tool development efforts
- Recognize shared challenges and opportunities across the CIROH community and identify pathways for collective action to make hydrologic research more accessible and actionable