By Kaleigh Yost, The Conversation via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania has over\u00a0180 levees<\/a>\u00a0that span approximately 155 miles (255 kilometers) and keep its rivers from flooding. They\u00a0protect about 158,000 people and US$26.2 billion in property<\/a>\u00a0across the state, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.<\/p>\n However, those levees are aging, and funding to maintain and improve them is becoming scarcer.<\/p>\n At the same time, extreme weather is becoming\u00a0increasingly frequent and severe<\/a>.<\/p>\n As a\u00a0geotechnical engineer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0geohazards researcher<\/a>, I study how levees respond to flooding. I also help develop solutions to evaluate, manage and improve aging levee infrastructure.<\/p>\n These solutions are more important than ever as Pennsylvania continues to see\u00a0record rainfall<\/a>\u00a0this season.<\/p>\n A small levee along Moshannon Creek was constructed in 1973 in Philipsburg, Pa.\u00a0Kaleigh Yost,\u00a0CC BY-NC-SA<\/a><\/p>\n How levees work<\/p>\n Levees are earthen embankments positioned parallel to a river that effectively raise the height of the banks of the river to prevent overflow when the river swells.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let yourself be misled. Understand issues with help from experts<\/p>\n Typically, levees are designed to prevent flooding from a particular-size flood. Often, that\u2019s a flood that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.<\/p>\n Levees can be breached when water flows over the top during flooding. They can also fail due to erosion, water seeping through or under the embankment, and partial collapse of the embankment before floodwater reaches the top.<\/p>\n In Pennsylvania, flooding is a frequent and\u00a0damaging natural hazard<\/a>.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s\u00a086,000 miles<\/a>\u00a0(138,000 kilometers) of rivers and streams commonly surge under heavy rains and snowmelt. Major population centers\u00a0Philadelphia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pittsburgh\u00a0both are flanked by rivers. And although Pennsylvania is not thought of as a coastal state, it can be significantly impacted by remnants of hurricanes and tropical storms.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania\u2019s 2023 State Hazard Mitigation Plan has recorded almost\u00a05,000 flood events<\/a>\u00a0in the state since 1996. The National Flood Insurance Program has paid over\u00a0$1 billion in claims<\/a>\u00a0to property owners in Pennsylvania over that same time period.<\/p>\n Aging infrastructure and growing costs<\/p>\n The\u00a0Flood Control Act of 1936<\/a>, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal agenda, was partially motivated by\u00a0devastating flooding in Pennsylvania<\/a>\u00a0that year. The legislation allocated funding for the construction of many of Pennsylvania\u2019s levees. As a result, most levees in Pennsylvania were constructed by the state and federal government\u00a0between 1950 and 1970<\/a>.<\/p>\n This means the majority of Pennsylvania\u2019s levees were designed and constructed based on engineering standards and practices from six to eight decades ago, and they have exceeded their typical\u00a0design life of 50 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n After construction of the levees, the federal government transferred responsibility for management and upkeep to local community sponsors.\u00a0Over 90% of Pennsylvania\u2019s levees<\/a>\u00a0are locally operated and maintained. For many rural Pennsylvania communities with\u00a0aging populations<\/a>, declining tax bases and labor shortages, these costs can be a challenge.<\/p>\n Maintaining levee embankments<\/a>\u00a0isn\u2019t cheap. It requires managing vegetation, controlling erosion, removing debris and repairing animal burrows. Other features of levees, like floodwalls, pump stations and pipes, also require periodic maintenance and upgrades.<\/p>\n In other words, construction of a levee is not a one-time investment. It is an ongoing commitment that can be expensive as older levees require more repairs and upgrades, and inflation drives up costs.<\/p>\n Levees not built for today\u2019s flood risks<\/p>\n Flood risk is understood as a combination of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. All three change over time.<\/p>\n Evolving weather patterns are resulting in more severe flood hazards. As areas protected by levees become more developed, more people and infrastructure are exposed to the hazard. Aging infrastructure increases their vulnerability.<\/p>\n Heavy rainfall across Pennsylvania is increasing. From 1958 to 2021, the amount of rainfall during the top 1% heaviest storms in the Northeast U.S.\u00a0increased by 60%<\/a>, according to the\u00a0Fifth National Climate Assessment<\/a>, published by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Federal Emergency Management Agency<\/a>\u00a0continually updates U.S. floodplain maps to better reflect current risk. These updates can trigger a review of a levee system\u2019s performance. If a community cannot show that its levee meets the minimum design, operations and maintenance requirements outlined in the\u00a0Code of Federal Regulations<\/a>, areas behind the levee will be considered unprotected against the 1% annual chance flood. This will result in higher\u00a0flood insurance premiums<\/a>\u00a0and development restrictions for homeowners and businesses located behind the \u201cunaccredited\u201d levee.<\/p>\n Currently, only\u00a0around 15%<\/a>\u00a0of Pennsylvania\u2019s levees are\u00a0accredited<\/a>\u00a0by FEMA.<\/p>\n As FEMA proceeds with floodplain mapping updates in Pennsylvania, the need to pursue accreditation is becoming more pressing for many communities. But the accreditation process can be time-consuming and expensive. Levee sponsors are responsible for hiring a professional engineer to conduct the analyses needed to certify that the levee meets the minimum requirements. If the engineer identifies upgrades needed to meet minimum protection levels, like raising the levee height, the levee sponsors must find funding to make those upgrades.<\/p>\n The levee in Duryea, Pa., which sits on the banks of the Lackawanna River, was built in the 1970s. The local flood protection authority wants to raise it about 3 feet to protect the small rural town from flooding.\u00a0Jason Ardan\/The Citizens’ Voice via Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n Scattered funding for levee repairs and upgrades<\/p>\n Financial support for levees is\u00a0lacking nationally<\/a>. Although Congress\u00a0reauthorized<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0National Levee Safety Program<\/a>\u00a0until 2028, appropriations have not been made to fully fund it.<\/p>\n No single stream of funding supports levee maintenance and upgrades. Small communities often have to piece together funding from multiple sources in order to complete a needed project.<\/p>\n Communities draw from local taxes or other fees to support their modest flood control budgets and supplement grant funding. Taxes or fees specifically to support levee operations, maintenance or upgrades are uncommon, though one notable exception is the\u00a0levee fee<\/a>\u00a0collected by the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority in northeastern Pennsylvania. This fee generates revenue used for maintenance and operations of the 16-mile-long (28-kilometer)\u00a0levee system<\/a>\u00a0along the Susquehanna River that protects around 18,000 buildings and over 62,000 people.<\/p>\n Despite the fee, the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority still has to\u00a0seek grant funding<\/a>\u00a0to support large projects.<\/p>\n Some state funding for levee repairs and upgrades is available through the\u00a0Pennsylvania capital budget<\/a>, but these funds are limited and subject to bureaucratic delays. Some communities obtain grants up to $500,000 from the state\u2019s Department of Community & Economic Development\u00a0Flood Mitigation Program<\/a>. The program requires the participating community to match 15% of the total project costs.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania\u00a0Local Share Account<\/a>\u00a0can also support some levee projects of limited scope.<\/p>\n Starting in 2020, FEMA\u2019s\u00a0Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities<\/a>, or BRIC, program provided an avenue for federal funding for hazard mitigation projects, including levee upgrades. But FEMA announced the elimination of the BRIC program in April 2025 and canceled around\u00a0$182.5 million<\/a>\u00a0in grants already awarded to Pennsylvania. At least two of those grants were supporting Pennsylvania levee projects: the rehabilitation of the\u00a0Duryea levee<\/a>\u00a0in Luzerne County, and construction plans for a\u00a0new levee in nearby Exeter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania was one of over 20 states that\u00a0sued the federal government<\/a>\u00a0in response to the termination of the BRIC funding. The\u00a0program was reinstated<\/a>\u00a0in March 2026 after a judge\u00a0ruled the termination unlawful<\/a>. However, it is unclear how and when funds will be distributed, and whether those funds will\u00a0cover planned project costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Future outlook<\/p>\n The bottom line is that levees built in the mid-1900s will not continue to provide the same level of flood protection forever.<\/p>\n Communities across Pennsylvania will need innovative solutions to promote flood resilience despite limited financial capacity as their levees continue to age, severe weather worsens and funding remains uncertain.<\/p>\n My colleagues at Penn State and I are working to develop and\u00a0deploy new technologies to investigate levee conditions<\/a>,\u00a0improve engineering analyses<\/a>\u00a0and establish\u00a0community-centered approaches<\/a>\u00a0to address this challenging issue.<\/p>\n Geophysical technologies<\/a>\u00a0allow you to \u201csee\u201d inside a levee without disturbing the embankment and can be less expensive than traditional methods of levee investigation. These methods use seismic, electrical or magnetic waves to characterize soil layers and their properties. Drones can support collection of highly detailed imagery, topography and even information about\u00a0internal erosion<\/a>. Advances in these technologies will enable more rapid and robust assessments of levee conditions.<\/p>\n Local leaders understand their community\u2019s unique challenges when it comes to flood resilience \u2013 but they need technical support and financial resources to implement solutions.<\/p>\n