ABOUT
Mean High Water (MHW) is a project documenting the impacts of sea level rise & flooding in and beyond the South Carolina Lowcountry. The title is in reference to the MHW tidal datum defined and maintained by the NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Service.
The tides of Charleston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean are increasingly encroaching into the natural and built environment of Charleston and the Lowcountry. The rate of increase in the number of coastal flood events is alarming. Approximately 45% of all coastal floods observed in Charleston Harbor from 1953 through 2020 have occurred since 2010. An average of 18.8 coastal floods occurred per year in the 1990s. In the 2010s, the annual average was 42.4 coastal floods2, an increase of over 200%.
MHW was started in 2020 by photographer and engineer Jared Bramblett. It is intended to be an evolving and collaborative documentation of the impacts of flooding. If you are interested in participating and submitting to the project, please reach out. All content on this site is copyrighted. If you are interested in using any content, please submit a request.
CONTACT
Jared Bramblett
jaredbramblett@gmail.com
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All thoughts and opinions presented on this site are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of any other organizations.
jaredbramblett@gmail.com
︎ ︎ ︎
All thoughts and opinions presented on this site are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of any other organizations.
Announcing Mean High Water
December 2020
I’m excited to launch Mean High Water. Since 2015, I’ve been documenting flooding throughout the Charleston region mainly through photography and mapping. While I’ve highlighted some of this work on my photography portfolio and in a few installations, I’ve wanted to create a platform with a greater focus on sea level rise and flooding. This project is very much a work in progress. Climate change, sea level rise, and flooding will present significant challenges throughout the Lowcountry. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have collaborated with engineers, artists, scientists, students, policy makers, and others. Some of the most impactful projects result from these collaborations, and it will take more of them for us to address the challenges ahead. I hope that Mean High Water becomes a collaboration with others in the community. If you have any ideas or are interested in participating, please reach out.