The RiverSmart Communities program combines social and river science, institutional and policy research, and community outreach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to research and address river floods in New England. It is our vision that river management can restore the environmental integrity of rivers while ensuring that New England communities thrive in a world where floods naturally occur. To make this vision possible, our work aims to help New England’s communities become river-smart.
River-smart: Managing rivers and riverside landscapes, as well as our own actions and expectations, so people and communities are more resilient to river floods. Specifically: reducing flood severity, flood damage, and flood costs by understanding and accommodating the natural dynamics of rivers and river floods.
A key goal is to offer ideas and tools that can be used by people and groups across New England – land and river managers, riverside property owners, policy makers, government agency staff, community leaders, grass-roots activists, and others – so they can creatively build and advocate for systems that work for their own states and communities.
In this website you can find summaries of the many projects included in the RiverSmart Communities program. You can also find educational and outreach materials that may be used to promote sustainable river management in your community.
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Landslide along Route 2 in Savoy, Massachusetts. This occurred during Tropical Storm Irene, August 2011.
Photo taken Fall 2015.
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Looking upstream at Cold River as it joins the Deerfield River off to the right.
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The Deerfield in late summer, approximately 1/2 mile above Stillwater Bridge in South Deerfield.
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Looking upstream from Stillwater Bridge in Deerfield Massachusetts.
February 2016, one day after heavy rains in the watershed.
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High Water on the Deerfield River as it runs past the Deerfield water treatment plant, off to the right. The plant is located behind the Deerfield Academy.
Water was high from recent rains in late February, 2016 - a year nearly devoid of snow.
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Aerial view of Deerfield River a few days after Tropical Storm Irene passed through in August 2011. Deerfield Academy is at the left of the photo, Route 91 is to the right. Waters have receded somewhat, but there is ample evidence of recent flooding and sediment deposition in agricultural fields and on the grounds of the academy.
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Farms and fields flooded after Tropical Storm Irene. This photo shows widespread deposition of sediment and damage to crops from the storm. The Old Deerfield treatment plant can be seen in the upper left quadrant of the image. It is adjacent to the river and at the edge of an expanse of agricultural land. As can be seen in the photo, large swaths of corn fields were destroyed by overflowing waters and sediment deposits. Some of these are well away from the river channel, indicating how far flood flows extended.
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The Deerfield River from the Route 5 bridge on the south side of Greenfield.
The municipal golf course is on the right, behind the thin like of riparian trees.
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Deerfield River from Stillwater Bridge in Deerfield MA. Downstream view.
Route 91 bridge can be seen in the distance.
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Deerfield River from Mill Village Road in Deerfield Massachusetts.
Old Deerfield and Deerfield Academy are about a mile downstream of this spot.
