With the help of three-dimensional visual modeling tools, Purdue University Calumet researchers are examining how effectively levees and a diverter on the Little Calumet River and Hart Ditch work during flooding events.
Civil engineering professor C.V. Chandramouli discussed the work of students and professors at PUC and three other American universities on Friday morning as part of the Purdue University Calumet Water Institute lecture series. Brenda Scott Henry, director of Gary’s green urbanism and environmental affairs department, discussed the ways the city is using green infrastructure to manage stormwater as well as revitalize neighborhoods.
Professor George Nnanna, the Water Institute’s director, talked about the importance of water in the sustainability of communities, which was the theme of the 2015 World Water Week.
“Water is everything,” Nnanna said. “We’re looking for water to guide sustainable development.”
Chandramouli and his student researchers gathered data from the 2008 flooding event to test if the levee system and diverter that were completed afterward are achieving their desired aims. Chandramouli said flood plain management strategies are hard to visualize in a lab setting, but virtual 3-D modeling tools are making it much easier.
Torrential rains from Hurricane Ike battered Northwest Indiana for three days in September 2008, causing many communities along the Little Calumet River and Hart Ditch to flood. The Little Calumet traditionally flows east to west into Illinois, but flood gates were closed on the Illinois side to cope with their flooding problems, thus backing up into Indiana communities.
The diverter, which is located on the Little Calumet just south of the Wal-Mart on Indianapolis Boulevard, helps manage the flow of the Little Calumet near where Hart Ditch empties into it. It sends much of the flow eastward toward Highland, Griffith and Gary, where pumping stations and storage detention ponds have been constructed to hold the water during storm events.
Chandramouli said the data analysis by PUC students revealed that the presence of the diverter improves the eastward flow on the Little Calumet, but it is not substantial. The Army Corps of Engineers, which constructed the project, estimated that flow could increase by 35 percent on the Little Calumet River East, but PUC’s analysis shows that it’s actually closer to 10.6 percent. The projects decreased flow on the Little Calumet River West by 11.3 percent, but there was no significant change in flow at Hart Ditch.
Chandramouli said dredging and other techniques may be required to improve the flow. He said the research team hopes to expand the project into Illinois and eastward along the Little Calumet to Burns Ditch, and recently applied for a grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coastal program.
Henry said studies like PUC’s can assist area communities like Gary in finding whether green infrastructure projects — such as transforming abandoned properties into rain gardens and parks to reduce runoff — work well as a long-term flood control strategy.
Henry said the city is employing green urbanism strategies as it deals with a declining population, thousands of vacant properties and legacy pollution. But she said engaging the public in the process is a critical component as well.
“We have disenfranchised citizens who have essentially created worlds of their own,” Henry said. “They can be difficult to re-engage in the system. When we talk about building resilient communities, we look at what others are talking about, but we also depend on what our audience is talking about.”
Gary has several green infrastructure projects in the works, including converting the site of the former Sheraton hotel next to City Hall into a plaza and amphitheater complex. The Aetna Stormwater Park and redesigning Lake Street also represent creative ways to manage stormwater, Henry said.
“We’re really excited about what’s going on,” Henry said.
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