A redesigned landscape in Wilmington, North Carolina, is demonstrating how communities can live with rising waters instead of fighting them. The Living with Water® project, recently completed at the site of the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial, offers a novel approach to nuisance flooding—a growing problem in coastal areas.
Berthed in Wilmington since 1961, USS North Carolina engaged in every major naval action in the Pacific Theater and retired as the highest decorated American battleship of World War II. The vessel serves as North Carolina’s memorial to WWII veterans and draws more than 250,000 visitors annually. But over the years, high tides have increasingly flooded the approach road, surrounding grounds and parking areas, limiting visitor access to the battleship and making daily operations difficult.
To tackle the problem, the Living with Water® project transformed two acres of frequently flooded parking lot into an intertidal wetland. The remaining parking lot was raised to reduce future flooding, and a special drainage feature called a bioswale was added to capture rainwater runoff from the parking area. The runoff is filtered naturally through the new wetland before it flows into the nearby Cape Fear River.
The project was designed not only to help protect the site from flooding, but also to improve water quality and create habitat for local wildlife. The work completed is expected to keep the site accessible to visitors for decades to come. As more coastal areas face similar flooding issues, the Living with Water® project provides a model for how to adapt when relocating is not an option.
NCCOS scientists and the University of North Carolina Wilmington partnered with the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial to help guide the project. The researchers are now monitoring the progress of the created wetland and the project’s impact on local water quality and flooding. Lessons learned from this effort will inform future projects in other locations.