For this week’s episode, Miyuki Hino, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, joins host Margaret Walls to discuss Hino’s latest research on high-tide flooding (also called “sunny day flooding” or “nuisance flooding”) in North Carolina. Hino recounts the complications of measuring increasingly frequent and disruptive floods and some innovative solutions to technical challenges—including creating water-level sensors and engaging communities to understand local geographies. By specializing data collection to suit a research area in murky waters, Hino and her research collaborators have noted more accurately the extent to which sea level rise has affected coastal communities. With improved data on hand, Hino reports that previous estimates of flood frequency are serious, but unsurprising, understatements of current realities and that updated findings can help communities better adapt to changing tides.

References and recommendations:

“Land-based sensors reveal high frequency of coastal flooding” by Miyuki Hino, Katherine Anarde, Tessa Fridell, Ryan McCune, Thomas Thelen, Elizabeth Farquhar, Perri Woodard, and Anthony Whipple; https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02326-w

Sunny Day Flooding Project; https://sunnydayflooding.com/

“Good Hang with Amy Poehler” podcast; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Hang_with_Amy_Poehler

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