• Mountains play a disproportionately large role in providing freshwater ecosystem services compared to lower lying regions, as Earth’s so-called “water towers” and the headwaters of river systems.
• Mountains are key biodiversity hotspots, under severe threat by climate change.
• Flooding in mountainous terrain can be especially destructive, as it initiates dynamics that generate impacts to downstream communities, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services.
• Managing flood risks in mountain environments is challenged by uncertainty in how disturbances interact with climate change, which in itself is driven by the lack of basic data and robust forecasting models in headwater systems.

This project brings together University of Vermont, Penn State University, and West Virgina University to build on momentum in these states and across institutions to accelerate the integration of river science, prediction tools, and nature-based solutions deployment. We focus on two types of work: convening activities and compilation of relevant flood damage data.

Our approach involves learning, partnership development, relationship building, co-production of research questions, and the ideation of appropriate models, tools, and solutions to build resilience to flooding, using three states (PA, VT, WV) in the Appalachian Mountains as the testbed.

This project aims to build partnerships across academia, NGOs, and governance and planning entities.

The Appalachian Mountains provide water to tens of millions of people in the eastern and mid-western US, including the Boston, New York, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Atlanta metro areas.

Small towns, gateway cities, and rural communities throughout the Appalachians have endured extreme climate-related disruption. Many Appalachian communities struggle to prepare for future climate risks.

We aim to use the Appalachian mountain chain as a model system to understand the risks experienced by freshwater ecosystems and human communities in mountain settings.