Marouane Temimi, associate professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering (CEOE) at Stevens Institute of Technology, has received a $437,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for his project, “Advancing Research in Cold Regions Hydrology to Support the Modeling and Mapping of Ice-induced Flood Inundation.” The study is being conducted as part of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research to Operation in Hydrology, of which Stevens is a founding university.

Temimi and his team will model the static thermodynamic formation of ice for integration into the National Water Model (NWM). This, in turn, will support the comprehensive modeling of ice formation and transport, integrated with flow routing schemes.

The research has several goals. First, it’s designed to help develop an automated, satellite-based system to monitor ice in large and narrow rivers. In addition, analyzing multiyear satellite data with ice-related hazards and other meteorologic and surface explanatory variables will support better estimations of the likelihood of ice-related flood inundation. It will support the creation of an alert system to better assess the risk of ice flood inundation. Finally, having an enhanced NWM flow routing scheme will improve the accounting for ice formation.

“This award is critical to collaborate with NOAA National Weather Service and NOAA National Water Center and advance their capabilities in the field of cold regions hydrology,” Temimi said. “Developing models capable of predicting ice formation in rivers and the likelihood of ice jams will limit the damages caused by the ice-induced flood inundations in northern watersheds.”