UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant partnered on a regional effort to track flooding from Florida to New York in relation to storm surge and rain from Hurricane Joaquin on Oct. 2-5 and a naturally occurring king tide on Oct. 27-28.

Using a new smartphone app to gather data on coastal flooding, the collaboration was a pilot effort to utilize citizen science to inform the forecasting of storm surge and flooding, as well as assess the accuracy of current models. The Georgia team walked the edge of floodwaters on Tybee, Skidaway and St. Simons Islands and in Brunswick, mapping the extent of flooding, and reported trouble spots that may warrant further investigation.

Madeleine Russell walks a flooded sidewalk with the tracking app after Hurricane Joaquin.

Madeleine Russell walks a flooded sidewalk with the tracking app after Hurricane Joaquin.

Oct. 2015 had three of the top 10 highest tides on record for the NOAA tide gauge at Fort Pulaski near Savannah. During the king tide on Oct. 27, the tide gauge measured 10.43 feet mean low low water (MLLW), the third highest on record since the gauge began operating in 1935.

The Sea Level Rise app was created by Norfolk, Virginia-based Wetlands Watch and developer Concursive. Additional partners include Sea Grant programs from North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida, as well as UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Stetson University and Carolina Integrated Sciences and Assessments.