A high school junior from Portland, Ore., won the Patrick H. Hurd Sustainability Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Adam Nayak won for a project to educate communities about the environmental impacts of flooding and best management practices. His project, “Modeling the effects of land use change on flooding in Pacific Northwest streams to promote green practices,” was inspired when he wondered why fish weren’t coming back to the stream in his neighborhood.

The project used historical flood and urban land use data, landscape imagery, geographical information systems (GIS) software, and streamflow modeling developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, to project how severe floods might be in four Portland urban stream basins if impervious surfaces continue to grow at the same pace as in recent years.

Nayak found that many communities don’t always have the scientific information they need to fully inform their decisions.

Nayak aims to make sure that science is understandable so communities have more useful, valid information available to make the best land-use planning decisions. In this case, the information is not just that damaging flooding will increase if impervious surfaces continues to increase, but that cities and neighborhoods can mitigate or “disrupt” flooding’s harmful effects. They can do this by incorporating green infrastructure such as green space, wetlands, and landscape management to reduce runoff and the potential for floods caused by impervious urban surface expansion.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science & the Public, is a major pre-college science competition. High school student finalists represent more than 78 countries, regions, and territories. The Society for Science & the Public, a nonprofit organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education, owns and has administered the International Science and Engineering Fair since its inception in 1950.

The EPA Patrick H. Hurd award funds the student winner and a chaperone to participate in and display the student's project at the EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo featuring the P3: People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition for Sustainability in 2018. Held each spring in Washington, DC, the National Sustainable Design Expo brings together the P3 students, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and businesses that are working to create a sustainable future.