October 4, Flooding on Highland

Flooding on Highland Avenue seems to be an annual event.  This photo, in front of Wal-mart is circulating on Facebook from this mornings floods.  Commentators on facebook.com/salemmass are saying such things as:  "Good bye highland ave.!",  "highland ave always floods there.that's the worst so far i've seen it !!!"

On August 25, 2010, a friend shared images of the flooding which occurred here a year ago.  See former photos:  www.springpondwoods.com/2010/08/nature-strikes-back-flood-on-highland.html

An historical map, c1900, found on Mass GIS, shows the site of Wal-mart used to be a marsh, and the stream through the valleys connects from Spring Pond to the rear of Wal-mart's site.  It is quite possible flooding happens here for a reason.  Perhaps the water table rises, or the streams (draining the hills) overflows.  If the top of the hill is blasted for a new Lowe's then excessive drainage will increase at a faster rate and fill the streams and former flood areas.  The site around the existing Wal-mart could be blasted too, reaching further north-west into the wetlands and Surface Water Protection Areas.

An overlay of the map with current (2010) wetlands and parcel data, shows where this marsh was located.  

In recent 2011 data collected from Mass GIS, The National Wetlands Inventory includes a survey of the streams from Spring Pond to the rear of Wal-mart's site.  Search for layer 'NWI Wetlands Solid' in OLIVER.

Map data was extracted using the state program OLIVER 

( maps.massgis.state.ma.us/map_ol/oliver.php ).  Information can viewed directly online or imported into a drawing program.  I use Vectorworks Designer: Architect/ Landmark/ Renderworks, after viewing the data in OLIVER, for measuring and modeling purposes.