- [Narrator] A project first proposed by a group of college students may now help save one community from rising waters.

Norfolk, Virginia has experienced one of the highest rates of sea level rise on the East coast, more than 14 inches over the past century in part because of the land slowly sinking.

- Some of it is experienced on day-to-day basis.

If we have a high-tide event, if we have rainfall combined with a high-tide event, a lot of roadways are flooded.

Access to buildings, businesses are disrupted, then that's becoming more and more common because of sea level rise.

- [Narrator] The historic riverfront neighborhood of Chesterfield Heights is especially vulnerable.

It was built in 1915 and is home to a vibrant community.

But lower income communities of color, like this one, often get overlooked when officials invest in climate adaptation.

- Chesterfield Heights was very vulnerable to the flooding issues because it's a community that was on a fixed income for the most part.

If they owned their home, it had been in their family for generations and their homes needed a lot of repairs.

If they were renting, the property manager wasn't necessarily concerned with making these repairs.

- Zach Robinson was an architecture student at nearby Hampton University about a decade ago.

He was part of a school project that worked with the community of Chesterfield Heights to study how urban design could help with flooding.

- When I first met the community, their biggest concern was the effect of the flooding, but more so the cost on them and also keeping these homes in their families.

- [Narrator] What happened next is rare.

The students' research turned into a massive project to transform the community to withstand a major storm, in addition to two-and-a-half feet of sea level rise.

The city of Norfolk won a $112 million grant based largely on the students' innovations.

Robinson has now worked on the project professionally, but as he discovered many years ago, redesigning a neighborhood to withstand flooding is no easy task.

- We thought, initially, that we could raise some of the homes.

We thought, you know, we could fill in the basements and that'll solve the issues.

We thought we could just solve it all with architecture and then we learned that that's not the case, so we looked at a community-wide approach from that point and focused on urban design solutions.

- [Narrator] Officials determined it would take a variety of neighborhood scale engineering projects.

- We're seeing more rainfall with climate change and higher tides, so we're building to these new standards in preparation for that.

- [Narrator] Now, the project is almost complete after several years of constructing a mix of man-made and nature-based solutions, both above and below ground.

The city built a 2,500 foot earth and berm, a concrete flood wall and living shoreline along the riverfront.

The marine grasses help absorb excess water and the raised walls are designed to protect the neighborhood behind them.

A central part of the project was updating the area's storm water infrastructure.

They replaced pipes and built two new pump stations that can handle a total of about 150-million gallons of water per day.

They also created trenches filled with vegetation along neighborhood streets to drain water and filter pollutants.

One central brick street was replaced with pavers that are permeable, allowing water to filter down into the ground.

It's all designed to clear flooded areas quickly and prevent sewers from backing up.

The question is, will it work and was it worth it?

Residents of Chesterfield Heights were part of the project's design and planning process along the way, but many still have mixed feelings about it.

Some have lost their views of the river.

It's changing the landscape of their neighborhood and has been disruptive during construction.

Erik Barrett grew up in the community and says his street never experienced much flooding, so it's hard for some neighbors to understand the need for such massive changes.

- This was one of the city's most proactive projects.

The city came to these fine folk and they said, like Noah did, that I'm going to build an ark because it's going to rain."

And by really focusing in on the future, they built all these things and so these fine folks are basically waiting for the great flood to happen.

At least the ark is completed, right?

- [Narrator] Officials all over the country are now waiting to see how this effort will play out over time with both the community and the flooding.

If it works, it could be a model for coastal communities affected by sea level rise.

- It's hard to put a price on community and neighborhood and your home.

Anytime that you can keep somebody's quality of life good and keep them in a spot where they're comfortable and they enjoy being a citizen of a place that nurtures them, I think that's really the main goal.

(gentle upbeat music)