City of Central showcases data-driven flood model, EarlyFlows forecast system and grant strategy

Mayor Wade Evans of the City of Central told the Amite River Basin Commission that his city has deployed a data-driven approach to stormwater management, including a living hydraulic model, lidar mapping, targeted maintenance and a public flood-forecasting tool called EarlyFlows.

“Once you did everything, the last step would be to implement a flood warning system where you could utilize the model and put in the forecasted rainfall from NOAA,” Mayor Wade Evans said, describing the city’s EarlyFlows system and its public interface.

Evans said Central used grant and ARPA funding to buy high-resolution lidar, surveying equipment and hydrology monitoring stations and to develop an integrated model and forecasting service. He told the commission the city has invested roughly $1 million over the past nine years to develop and refine its hydraulic model, and he listed other costs the city incurred: about $42,000 to commission new one-foot lidar, $85,000 for Leica survey equipment and consultant-based work to secure multiple grants for the same projects. Evans said the city had identified roughly $78 million in projects and had about $30 million in local money on hand when he took…