2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engagement in Practice: Partnering with Communities to Address Nuisance Flooding Challenges

Presented at Community and Industry Collaboration for Sustainable Development

Many communities are already experiencing the impacts of climate change that disrupt their daily lives. In Coastal Virginia, these impacts take the form of nuisance and stormwater flooding caused by sea level rise and changes in precipitation. Coastal Virginia has one of the highest relative sea level rise rates on the Atlantic Coast and the regional planning district commission recommends that Atlas 14 rainfall intensity, duration, and frequency curves be increased by 20% to account for changes in rainfall. The Coastal Community Design Collaborative (CCDC), a partnership between Hampton University Architecture and Old Dominion University Engineering & Technology, has had multidisciplinary student design teams working in local communities for more than ten years to develop place-based solutions to mitigate nuisance flooding impacts. The CCDC partners with communities and their localities to understand the community’s climate change challenges and preferences for solutions to develop preliminary designs solutions. Preliminary design solutions are focused on natural and nature-based solutions (NNBS), however existing gray infrastructure is also evaluated to determine if modifications are required. The CCDC methodology facilitates learning through hands-on engagement with community members, multi-disciplinary collaboration, and place-based design. The CCDC partners with community civic leagues to enable students to engage with community members, tour the community and develop an understanding of the challenges in the community. Student design solutions are focused on solving community challenges and shared with community members for future implementation. Partnering communities have been awarded over $132 million in funding for project implementations based on the CCDC student designs and an additional $20 million in community implementation grant applications are pending. Old Dominion University received $700,000 in grant funding to collaborate with the Southside Community, located in Coastal Virginia. The CCDC is currently working in that community. The Southside Community required extensive partnership development, which was initiated by faculty, to support project design and execution. The project design and implementation have been divided into two phases to be completed over two academic years. The processes used in community engagement and project design and execution are transferable and provide opportunities for integrating community-based design problems in multi-disciplinary educational collaborations.

Authors

Ms. Carol L Considine Old Dominion University [biography]

Carol Considine is the Director of Applied Projects in the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at Old Dominion University. She has a over 15 years of experience in applied project development and execution in the coastal adaptation and resilience field. She is a Professor of Engineering Technology at Old Dominion University. She has a MS in Civil Engineering from the University of California Berkeley and a BS in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech.
Dr. Mujde Erten-Unal Old Dominion University [biography]

Mujde Erten-Unal is a Professor and the Graduate Program Director in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of Old Dominion University. She has a Master of Engineering in Environmental & Planning Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Science and Technology University of Missouri-Rolla. She has worked in industry as a project engineer before joining ODU. Her research interests include adaptive design to climate change and sea level rise (SLR), sustainable development, pollution prevention and wastewater treatment. She has been involved in trans-disciplinary collaboration among students from ODU civil engineering and Hampton University architecture departments through coastal community design collaborative which encourages minority women in STEM education. The City of Norfolk identified her as one of the one hundred Resilient City Builder due her work in SLR and flooding.
Dr. Dalya Ismael Old Dominion University [biography]

Dr. Dalya Ismael is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Technology at Old Dominion University. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on advancing sustainable design and construction practices through behavioral interventions, immersive visualization, and data-informed decision-making. With over a decade of combined academic and industry experience, Dr. Ismael is also a LEED Green Associate and Envision Specialist. She leads projects that embed sustainability and entrepreneurial thinking into engineering education and collaborates with communities to develop climate-resilient infrastructure solutions.
Luka Alandra Hamel-Serenity Hampton University
Dr. Farzaneh Soflaei Hampton University [biography]

Dr. Farzaneh Soflaei is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Hampton University, bringing over 20 years of international experience in teaching, research, and professional practice. She holds dual Ph.D. degrees—one in Architecture from Azad University (Iran) and another in Urban Design and Theory from Tsinghua University (China), along with a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering. Her multidisciplinary teaching portfolio spans architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, and environmental sustainability, with academic appointments in Iran, China, and the United States. Dr. Soflaei’s research centers on sustainability, resilience, and climate adaptation in underserved communities. She has authored more than 60 scholarly publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles and international conference proceedings. As a principal and co-investigator, she has secured substantial research funding from organizations such as the NFWF, HBCU SCI (INROADS), and NSF, supporting collaborative research and enhancing student learning opportunities. She is also a LEED AP (BD+C) certified architect and USGBC faculty member, deeply committed to advancing sustainability through education, research, and public engagement.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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