182 Expanding Geology’s Horizons: Geoinformatics, Open Science, and Open Data (Posters)

This session highlights the development of new methodologies for collecting, sharing, and analyzing geological datasets and the advancement of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data practices.

Tuesday, 21 October 2025
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, Hall 1

A Comparison of Preconditions on Appalachian Cyclone-Related Flooding, Asheville, NC

Paper number: 182-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

The southern and central Appalachians have been inundated with extreme precipitation in recent years, often associated with remnant tropical low-pressure systems. The resulting catastrophic flooding has led to extensive damage and loss of life. Flooding caused by remnants of Hurricane Helene in 2024 resulted in abundant fatalities in North Carolina alone (n = 86), highlighting a need to thoroughly investigate drivers of Appalachian flooding, and the limited availability of stream gages present at headwaters, which limits the accuracy of early warning systems (critical for mountainous communities), presents an opportunity to develop alternatives to stage height in flood forecasting. Mountainous, riverine flooding is a complicated system with mechanics altered by geologic, atmospheric, and anthropogenic factors. The intensity of storms and their subsequent flooding are attributed to aspects such as precursor rainfall, orography, extratropical transition, channel morphology, land use, and antecedent soil moisture. In this study, we examine how factors such as pre-event soil moisture and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in the Gulf of Mexico during cyclone formation might exacerbate flood severity. We used the Swannanoa River near Asheville, North Carolina, as a case study to model 2D flooding scenarios with TUFLOW flood modeling codes. The model was assembled using corrected hourly rainfall data compiled into four-kilometer grids, a lidar-derived high-resolution (1m) digital elevation model (smoothed to 10m) with assigned Manning’s n values, and soil moisture data (20cm depth). Outputs included a maximum flood height map, which can be cross-referenced with highwater marks collected in the field after the Hurricane Helene event and USGS stream gage records for spatial and temporal accuracy. Independent assessment of the effects of soil moisture and SST as proxies for overland flow potential and total precipitation potential on flood height may inform improvements to flood forecasting alerts by filling gaps in real-time data that would be otherwise collected by stream gages.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-413637

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