BREEZY POINT, Md. — Researchers from the University of Maryland installed a new real-time water-level monitoring station at Breezy Point Beach and Campground, expanding a regional network designed to improve flood forecasting and strengthen coastal resilience across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The new Hydronet station continuously measures local water levels and transmits data in real time, providing emergency managers, local governments and residents with information intended to improve preparedness before, during and after coastal flooding events.
The installation is part of the University of Maryland’s Hydronet program, a climate resilience initiative focused on deploying cost-effective water-level sensors in communities vulnerable to coastal flooding that currently have limited monitoring coverage.
The network currently includes 17 monitoring stations across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, providing denser coverage between existing federal and state gauges. The additional sensors capture localized flooding, including sunny-day inundation, weather-related flooding and changing tidal conditions.
Organizers said communities, county governments and regional stakeholders help identify installation sites based on flood risk and monitoring needs.
Support for Hydronet comes through the University of Maryland’s Grand Challenges program, bringing together researchers from the departments of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Geography and Geology, the Marine Estuarine Environmental Science program and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, which is part of the Maryland Climate Resilience Network. Additional support comes from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS).
The project provides hands-on learning opportunities for University of Maryland students, who help build sensors, develop software, interpret data and support installations.
The Breezy Point station joins the growing network of Hydronet sensors operating throughout Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay region. Data from each station is publicly available online, allowing users to monitor changing water levels in near real time.
Filling Critical Data Gaps Along The Chesapeake
Tim Canty, associate professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and associate director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESIC), said Hydronet was created to fill “data deserts” in the Chesapeake Bay where existing NOAA buoys and the U.S. Geological Survey tide gage network do not provide hyper-local information.
He said the Chesapeake’s complex shoreline means water levels can vary significantly over short distances, making additional monitoring essential for communities vulnerable to flooding.
“We’re trying to fill the data deserts where there’s no information. It’s hard to solve a problem if you don’t have any data,” Canty said. “The other networks are great, but they don’t cover every area and the complexity of the Chesapeake Bay.”
Canty said local partners identify where new stations should be installed, making Hydronet a community-driven network. Breezy Point was selected because it represented a gap in available water-level data in Calvert County.
“This wasn’t us. You tell us where you want to put them,” Canty said. “It’s driven by our communities.”
Canty said the monitoring stations could measure water levels within millimeters. While less expensive and less robust than traditional federal monitoring stations, he said they provide valuable real-time information in places that previously had little or no data.
“As far as I know, there’s just no other data nearby. Further down and further up in Calvert County, but not right here,” Canty said. “Right now, good enough is perfect and we’re getting information where there hasn’t been any.”
Canty said the information is intended to help communities anticipate flooding and make better infrastructure decisions. Hydronet is also developing a notification system that will automatically alert users when water reaches predetermined levels.
“Emergency managers and community members just wondering when the road is going to flood. How do you deploy resources? Do you need to evacuate? Do you have to take the long way around? You know the emergency escape route or emergency routes when floods happen in Annapolis,” Canty said. “If you collect enough data, you can see the trends. How and what kind of infrastructure do you need to build to mitigate flood events? like extreme flood events or king tide events.”
Looking beyond emergency response, Canty said maintaining the network over many years will allow researchers and communities to better understand long-term trends in sea level rise, land subsidence and changing flood patterns. He said that the project’s primary mission is helping communities make informed decisions.
“The data doesn’t mean a thing if it’s just sitting on someone’s computer somewhere. What’s important is making sure anyone who needs this data can access it quickly and reliably, but it’s also in a form that communities can use, such that you don’t need a PhD to see what’s going on,” Canty said. “We’re doing this because we want it to matter to people.”
Turning Local Data Into Solutions
Katie Lehman, instrumentation specialist for the Hydronet and Maryland Mesonet programs, said her work extends beyond installing sensors to overseeing every stage of the monitoring network, from selecting and configuring instruments to coordinating installations, securing land-use agreements and working directly with communities to identify their needs. She said her community outreach consistently identifies flooding as a primary concern along Chesapeake Bay shorelines.
“I like to make sure that whatever the problems are for each community are addressed, and if there’s something our network can do to help, move forward with that,” Lehman said. “Flooding looks different everywhere. So, a certain water level can have Breezy Point underwater, but a few miles down the shore, they’re totally fine.”
She said sensor data from the Eastern Shore community of Crisfield, Md. served as a great example of the network’s practical value, explaining that city officials used Hydronet and other monitoring data to document recurring flooding and successfully obtain federal funding for seawall construction.
“They had data and they had proof that this is happening,” Lehman said. “They were able to write a grant, get it approved, and actually move forward with their solutions.”
Lehman said Calvert County residents identified Breezy Point as an area lacking nearby water-level information despite recurring flooding, making it a logical location for the network’s newest station. The data will allow residents and emergency managers to monitor flooding conditions specific to the community instead of relying on stations located miles away.
“For Breezy Point, just for this neighborhood, to know what the water levels are is going to be great for the community, and they’re really excited,” Lehman said. “They can act proactively rather than just fixing whatever issue arises.”
Looking ahead, Lehman said the university hopes to continue expanding the network through partnerships with local governments, museums and waterfront organizations to improve coverage throughout Maryland’s coastal communities.
“There are communities that were built right on the shore that weren’t getting flooded back when those houses were built, and now they are,” Lehman said.
Radar Sensors Deliver Real-Time Water-Level Data
Michael Maddox, senior faculty specialist and climate resilience network manager at the University of Maryland, said county officials can use water-level data for flood planning and public safety decisions.
“Communities have to make the least-regret decision because they have incomplete information,” Maddox said. “We’re trying to fill in the information gap.”
Maddox said Calvert County has had to estimate flood levels for parts of the county because the nearest federal monitoring station was too distant to provide localized information. He said Hydronet’s growing network of sensors provides that local data and is expected to grow to roughly 40 stations by the end of the summer.
“Eventually we’ll be in all the tidal communities,” Maddox said. “We can put these in for a few thousand dollars, and we can put in the dense networks in the local areas and fill in the data deserts.”
Maddox said the Breezy Point station uses a radar sensor mounted above the water to continuously measure the distance to the surface. Powered by a solar panel and lithium-ion battery, the system records measurements every second, averages the readings and transmits updated water-level data every six minutes through a 4G cellular connection.
“Basically, it sends down the radar wave, it hits the surface, it bounces back to the sensor, and we measure the time it takes,” Maddox said. “We call it near real time.”
Observations typically appear on the Hydronet website within about 15 minutes and are also being integrated into National Weather Service forecasting models and regional coastal observing systems to improve local flood forecasts. If cellular service is interrupted, the station can store several days of data and automatically upload the backlog once the connection is restored.
Regional Partnerships Expand Flood Monitoring
“We don’t do science just to do science. It always has to have a stakeholder community,” MARACOOS Deputy Director Mary Ford said. “We never go into a community and force anything on people. We ask what they need and then work with them.”
Ford said MARACOOS funds water-level sensor projects across multiple Mid-Atlantic states, including Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and New York, with the goal of improving localized information while strengthening regional forecasting systems.
“The more information we have, and the better information we have, the better models and predictions that decision makers can make,” Ford said. “If we get a number of these water-level sensors throughout the bay, we can help the Weather Service improve their models for flood forecasting.”
Coastal Monitoring Guides Long-Term Climate Resilience
Allison Burnett, executive director of Southern Maryland Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D), said the organization has worked with the University of Maryland and local partners to expand environmental monitoring in response to increasing flooding and shoreline erosion throughout Southern Maryland. She said RC&D’s role is to connect agencies, researchers and community organizations so local needs drive projects such as Hydronet rather than research alone.
“There are so many unanswered questions and a lot of the modeling that exists now isn’t at this fine scale that we need,” Burnett said.
She said RC&D has documented growing erosion and land loss affecting coastal homeowners and farmers, making better local data increasingly important for future planning and conservation efforts.
“As the climate is changing, we’re seeing more intense storms more frequently, and we’re seeing those impacts increasing,” Burnett said.
Burnett said local flood data can help communities prioritize conservation projects and target areas most vulnerable to flooding and erosion. She said natural solutions — including living shorelines, native vegetation, rain gardens and improved stormwater management — have proven effective in reducing erosion and protecting vulnerable shorelines.
Better Data Improves Flood Preparedness
Kara Buckmaster, emergency management specialist for Calvert County’s Division of Emergency Management, said the Hydronet station will provide county officials with real-time, hyper-local water-level data to improve long-term resilience. She said the information will provide more accurate, real-time data during hurricanes and other flooding events.
“The data that we’re getting in real time from this sensor would enable us to make better decisions,” Buckmaster said. “We can identify how quickly the water is rising and at what depth it’s at. That helps us with determining if we need to evacuate or if we need to shut down roads.”
Buckmaster said the data will allow the county to monitor how quickly water levels are rising, determine when roads should be closed and help public departments decide when waterfront parks and piers should be shut down. She said flooding remains one of Calvert County’s greatest natural hazards, particularly along the Chesapeake Bay shoreline, where communities continue to experience erosion, land subsidence and recurrent flooding.
“Flooding is one of the greatest hazards that we have in Calvert County and Southern Maryland as a whole,” Buckmaster said.
She said the new sensor will also improve flood modeling by identifying areas most at risk and supporting future mitigation projects. The county provided access to public infrastructure for the monitoring equipment as part of its partnership with the University of Maryland, Hydronet and MARACOOS, with additional monitoring locations planned throughout the county.
“It’ll help with flood modeling, which is what we use for all of our planning efforts,” Buckmaster said. “Having this data will help us make the county more resilient to flooding.”
Buckmaster said emergency managers expect the growing network of sensors to fill long-standing monitoring gaps, particularly along the southern Chesapeake Bay shoreline and near Lower Marlboro, where flooding regularly affects roads and other infrastructure.
“It’s going to give us access to a ton of hyper-local, real-time data, and that’s something we’ve never had before,” Buckmaster said. “We are trying to make Calvert County safer and more resilient for its residents and businesses and visitors.”
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