St. Cloud State University senior Eryn Bloom has been honored for her undergraduate research on assessing flood risk in Midwest state parks and recreation areas.
Bloom was one of four presenters from SCSU at the 12th annual Minnesota State Posters at St. Paul event on March 17 at the Minnesota State Capitol. The event encourages students to share their academic work with state legislators and other local government leaders, and students from 11 different Minnesota State institutions participated.
Bloom received an Outstanding Poster Award for her project, “Flood Risk Preparedness of Upper Midwest State Parks and Recreation Areas.” She was one of four award winners out of nearly 40 presentations.
The research was done as part of her senior capstone as a double major in earth sciences and hydrology. Bloom and her advisor, Dr. Sarah Z. Gibson, collaborated with ISG Inc., a full-service engineering firm based in Mankato, and the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASPFM) Foundation to develop the project.
“Eryn’s work highlights the importance of understanding the risks of camping within a floodplain,” Dr. Gibson said. “She chose this project after the tragic flooding events in Kerr County, Texas last summer, which led to the death of several young campers at Camp Mystic. People might not even recognize that they put themselves at risk when they are vacationing. The agencies in charge of each respective campground are responsible for ensuring safe facilities, maintaining evacuation routes and managing flood insurance compliance.”
Bloom evaluated 253 state parks and recreation sites with Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, and she scored these sites based on known flood risk indicators such as the amount of the site located within the floodplain, flood insurance coverage and number of access routes for evacuation. It was discovered that 78 percent of accessed state parks across the three states overlap with a known floodplain.
“One set of data I wasn’t able to investigate was related to private campgrounds,” Bloom said. “State parks have publicly available data so assessments like this can be performed. Private resorts or camping sites, however, don’t have that level of transparency. I think the next steps for this project would be to ensure that private campgrounds and resorts have accessible data so that we can investigate their level of risk before a tragic event happens.”
Research from Bloom and fellow SCSU presenters is available online as student presentations or in the abstract booklet.
SCSU Presenters
“AI’s Surveillance Mission – Metro Surge”
Yasmin Hussein
Mentor: Lynn Collen
“Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Preservice Teachers Empower Students Through Arts-Based Instruction in Under-Resourced Communities”
Connie Herges
Mentor: J. Scott Baker
“Flood Risk Preparedness of Upper Midwest State Parks and Recreation Areas”
Eryn Bloom
Mentor: Dr. Sarah Z. Gibson
“Fostering Empowerment: Enhancing Student Voice, Advocacy, Ownership, and Engagement”
Zayah Davis
Mentor: J. Scott Baker
