Assessment of coastal flooding hazard along the Emilia Romagna littoral,IT

Aim of this paper is to develop simple tools for mapping — at regional and local scale — coastal areas exposed at flooding risk. A two-step simplified procedure for coastal management purposes is presented and is applied to Emilia Romagna (Italy), whose low and sandy coast faces the relatively mild Northern Adriatic Sea. The procedure is composed by a 1D conceptual model to determine flooding probability along wide coastal stretches and by a more detailed 2D Level II reliability method, that provides local quantitative statistical maps of inland flooding propagation. Qualitative maps obtained by literature approaches and quantitative results of flooding probability along the littoral show a good agreement. A coastal flood state indicator is proposed to rapidly assess coastal hazard.     

Analysis of the coastal Mississippi storm surge hazard

Following the extreme flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) commissioned a study to update the Mississippi coastal flood hazard maps. The project included development and application of new methods incorporating the most recent advances in numerical modeling of storms and coastal hydrodynamics, analysis of the storm climatology, and flood hazard evaluation. This paper discusses the methods that were used and how they were applied to the coast of the State of Mississippi.     

A simplified hindcast method for the estimation of extreme storm surge events in semi-enclosed basins

Human presence, coastal erosion, and tourism activities are increasing the attention to coastal flooding risk. To perform risk assessments, long time series of observed or hindcast wave parameters and tide levels are then necessary. In some cases, only a few years of observation are available, so that observed extreme data are not always representative and reliable. A hindcast system aimed to reconstruct long time series of total tide levels may be of great help to perform robust extreme events analysis and then to protect human life, activities as well as to counteract coastal erosion by means of risk assessments. This work aims to propose a simplified method to hindcast storm surge levels time series in semi-enclosed basins with low computational costs. The method is an extension of a previous work of some of the authors and consists of a mixed approach in which the estimation of storm surge obtained by using the theory of linear dynamic system is corrected by using a statistical method. Both steps are characterized by low computational costs. Nevertheless, the results may be considered reliable enough also in view of the simplicity of the approach. The proposed method has been applied to the Manfredonia case study, a small village located in the Southern Adriatic Italian coast and often prone to coastal flooding events. The comparison of extreme events estimated on the basis of hindcast levels time series is satisfactorily similar to those estimated on the basis of observed tide series.     

Effects of DEM Resolution on Modeling Coastal Flood Vulnerability

Abstract

This article examines whether Digital Elevation Model (DEM) resolution affects the accuracy of predicted coastal inundation extent using LISFLOOD-FP, with application to a sandy coastline in New Jersey. DEMs with resolution ranging from 10 to 100 m were created using coastal elevation data from NOAA, using the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. A two-dimensional hydrodynamic flood model was developed in LISFLOOD-FP using each DEM, all of which were calibrated and validated against an observed 24-h tidal cycle and used to simulate a 1.5 m storm surge. While differences in predicted inundated area from all models were within 1.0%, model performance and computational time worsened and decreased with coarser DEM resolution, respectively. This implied that using a structured grid model for modeling coastal flood vulnerability is based on two trade-offs: high DEM resolution coupled with computational intensity, but higher precision in model predictions, and vice versa. Furthermore, water depth predictions from all DEMs were consistent. Using an integrated numerical modeling and GIS approach, a two-scale modeling strategy, where a coarse DEM is used to predict water levels for projection onto a fine DEM was found to be an effective, and computationally efficient approach for obtaining reliable estimates of coastal inundation extent.     

The consequences of doing nothing: The effects of seawater flooding on coastal zones

Sea level rise and an increased frequency and severity of storm surge events due to climate change are likely to increase the susceptibility of low lying coastal areas to seawater flooding. An integral part of any coastal management strategy throughout European countries is the “do nothing” scenario; this is the benchmark against which putative intervention strategies are evaluated. While the prime concern of a flood defense scheme appraisal often focuses on the sustained financial “benefits” of an intervention, intrinsic to a complete multicriteria analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the ecological and social consequences of coastal flooding, reflecting the needs of end users and satisfying relevant national and international policies.An ecological perspective may be usefully employed to examine the impact of the do nothing option on coastal environments (e.g. estuaries, sand dunes and grasslands) and businesses. Although at first sight coastal environmental and business systems appear quite different, they have similarities in that both are vulnerable and susceptible to flood damage or loss and both may be analyzed by employing ecological, adaptive, resilience frameworks. From an ecological perspective many coastal environments are of international conservation importance and provide important ecosystem services including coastal protection, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, food production and recreation. Nonetheless, despite their potential vulnerability to coastal flooding, our understanding of the effects of salinity on the biological response of many coastal plants and animals is extremely limited. We show here how plant physiology and patterns of plant and invertebrate distribution are impacted by sea water flooding. We also present responses of model plants to sea water inundation based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) predictions of sea level rise and storm surge events. Results showed that coastal habitats surveyed are relatively resilient to flooding due to their species rich nature and their ability to adapt to flooding. However specific groups of plants such as grasses are more affected by flooding and less able to recover.The socio-economic dimensions of doing nothing are addressed in relation to the impacts of coastal flooding specifically on business activity, which has received little attention to date. Here the focus is on the presence or absence of business disruption and recovery plans as a means of increasing a business's adaptation and resilience to flooding. Results show that some businesses, particularly small ones, are more likely to fail to recover from flooding due to lack of forward planning. Therefore from an ecological perspective business recovery post flooding is likely to be dependent upon ability to adapt, which itself depends upon the construction of resilient business environments.     

An approach to assess flooding and erosion risk for open beaches in a changing climate

This paper examines the vulnerability to flooding and erosion of four open beach study sites in Europe. A framework for the quantitative estimation of present and future coastal flood and erosion risks is established using methods, data and tools from across a range of disciplines, including topographic and bathymetric data, climate data from observation, hindcast and model projections, statistical modelling of current and future climates and integrated risk analysis tools. Uncertainties in the estimation of future coastal system dynamics are considered, as are the consequences for the inland systems. Different implementations of the framework are applied to the study sites which have different wave, tidal and surge climate conditions. These sites are: Santander, Spain—the Atlantic Ocean; Bellocchio, Italy—the Adriatic Sea; Varna, Bulgaria—the Black Sea; and the Teign Estuary, UK—the northern Atlantic Ocean. The complexity of each system is first simplified by sub-division into coastal “impact units” defined by homogeneity in the local key forcing parameters: wave, wind, tide, river discharge, run-off, etc. This reduces the simulation to that of a number of simpler linear problems which are treated by applying the first two components of the Source–Pathway–Receptor–Consequence (S–P–R–C) approach. The case studies reveal the flexibility of this approach, which is found useful for the rapid assessment of the risks of flooding and erosion for a range of scenarios and the likely effectiveness of flood defences.     

雷州市沿海风暴潮淹没危险性评估*

文章基于近岸海洋数值模式ADCIRC (a parallel advanced circulation model for oceanic, coastal and estuarine waters)和近海波浪数值模式SWAN (simulating waves nearshore), 建立雷州市高分辨率的风暴潮-海浪耦合漫滩数值模型, 并反演了对雷州市影响较为严重的1415号台风“海鸥”的风暴潮过程。经过对比分析得出, 波浪对雷州市沿海海域的风暴潮产生重要影响。然后以8007号台风路径为基础, 构造了7个不同等级共35组台风风暴潮案例, 计算分析出不同等级台风强度下雷州市风暴潮淹没范围及水深。900hPa等级下, 雷州市淹没面积达到463.2km²。文章还构造了60组可能最大风暴潮事件集, 计算得到雷州市可能最大台风风暴潮淹没范围及水深分布。在可能最大台风影响下, 大量海水将漫过海堤, 造成极其严重的淹没灾害, 雷州市总的淹没面积可达602.0km², 其中465.8km²的淹没面积达到了危险性等级 Ⅰ 级, 淹没水深大于3m。雷州市东岸的淹没灾害大于西岸。     

Coastal risk management: How to motivate individual economic decisions to lower flood risk?

Coastal flood risk is defined as a product of probability of event and its effect, measured in terms of damage. The paper is focused on coastal management strategies aimed to decrease risk by decreasing potential damage. We review socio-economic literature to show that total flood damage depends on individual location choices in the housing market and on individual flood risk awareness. Low flood risk awareness leads to inefficient spatial developments and increased flood risk. We show that personal experience, risk communication, financial instruments like insurance from flooding and technical instruments like building on high elevations, are factors that increase individual risk awareness. Evidence that these factors indeed affect housing prices and land use patterns is provided. We discuss proactive instruments that can be used in coastal zone management in the Netherlands to increase individual risk awareness. We argue that policy-makers may create incentives giving individuals a possibility to make location choices that lead to less total flood risk in the coastal zone area.     

Integrating anthropogenic factors, geomorphological indicators and local knowledge in the analysis of coastal flooding and erosion hazards

The settlement and development of Québec’s maritime coastline has generally taken place without consideration for coastal dynamics and coastal hazards. Consequently, fighting coastal erosion has become a necessity. Until now, the construction of rigid walls and encroachments has been the preferred approach to the problem. In the Chaleur Bay region, coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to erosion and flooding because a number of residential, commercial and transportation infrastructures have been installed on beach terraces and sand spits. Recent storms, such as the storm of December 2, 2005, have made possible a better understanding of how these rigid defence structures amplify the effects of storm surges and waves. These structures drive the sand away from the coast, lowering beach levels and even causing beaches to vanish entirely from the areas situated in front of the defence structures. The end result is a weakening of the natural capacity of these coastal systems to absorb the energy of waves and a greater risk of coastal flooding. An integrated approach using local knowledge on the one hand, along with LIDAR surveys and a DGPS system on the other hand, have made possible to map the levels reached by flooding at the time of the storm. The results indicate that such levels vary greatly in spatial terms and that the difference between the levels actually reached and the water level measured by tide gauge can be as much as 2 m; a difference that is due to anthropogenic perturbations. This raises questions concerning the safety and the reference levels used for mapping coastal flooding risk. Taking into account knowledge of local communities, analysis of water levels, geomorphological indicators and aggravating anthropogenic factors, an approach and basic criteria are put forward with a view of establishing a reference level for the mapping of flood risk that can be used by community land-use planners.     

海岸带城市洪水淹没风险评价研究——以青岛市为例

目前国内海岸带城市洪水淹没风险领域中较多关注单一致灾因子(风暴潮)导致的淹没,缺乏对导致海岸带洪水发生的其他致灾因子的自然属性和社会属性的综合考量。根据风险的内涵,借鉴国外综合性风险评价理念,将洪水淹没自然机理模型与概念框架模型相结合,选取能表征风险发生概率的自然过程指标以及能表征风险危害性后果的社会经济类指标,构建具有针对性的海岸带型洪水淹没风险评价指标体系,对青岛市洪水淹没风险进行综合评估。研究得出青岛市洪水淹没风险指数值为0.3240,根据我国主要海域自然灾害等级划分(表3),可知其风险等级为3,危险性属于中等水平;确定了青岛市洪水淹没风险的各类致灾体与其影响因素之间的相关性;并得出洪水淹没风险的自然因素和人为可控因素两类关键性控制指标制定短期和长期性的适应策略和行动,充分利用可调节因素,有效加强并提高防范性指标,以期到达最大程度上降低青岛市洪水淹没风险。     

海南岛博鳌港洪水过程模拟

采用一个包括陆地淡水径流和风暴潮影响的模型计算了海南省博鳌港的洪水水位。模型中的外海潮汐考虑K^1和O^1分潮，风暴增水和河流流量的变化过程采用峰值函数的形式模拟，取得了与实测结果相近的计算结果。模拟实验表明，洪水水位峰值与河流洪峰流量，风暴增水峰值，系统的过水断面形状以及洪水历时的长短等因素有关。对于博鳌港口门通航条件整治，采用复合的梯形过水断面最为合适，因为相对于天然的口门过水断面，复合梯形断面能使湾内的最高洪水水位下降约20％。     

Flood and coastal erosion risk management policy evolution in Northern Ireland: “Incremental or leapfrogging?”

Climate change poses a significant challenge for the future of Northern Ireland’s coast due to impacts that include, inter alia, mean sea level rise of between 13 cm and 74 cm by 2050. Whilst flooding is regarded as a major hazard in the United Kingdom (UK), to date Northern Ireland’s experiences of coastal flooding have been infrequent and less severe compared to those in England and Wales. Similarly, coastal erosion has historically been, and remains, only a minor concern in Northern Ireland. Partly as a result of this, Government administrative arrangements for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) in Northern Ireland operate in the absence of any statutory provision for coastal erosion, as well as without formal or strategic shoreline management planning and any integrated flood and coastal erosion risk management policy. This paper provides a commentary on Northern Ireland’s approach to FCERM, comparing this with its UK counterparts, highlighting both congruence and divergence in policy evolution and development. It is noted that the recent EU Floods Directive has been a significant catalyst and that the current institutional landscape for FCERM is in flux.     

海岸侵蚀作用下海岸带地区极端风暴洪水风险评估 —以上海石化为例

海堤是海岸带地区社会经济活动的重要保护屏障。海岸侵蚀的加剧将导致海堤稳定性和安全性降低, 增加海岸带地 区遭受极端风暴洪水的风险, 进而影响到海岸带地区的安全。本文选择上海石化这一遭受海岸侵蚀较为严重的区域作为研究 区, 利用 GIS 分析了 1972—2020 年近岸海床侵蚀特征, 并基于 2000—2020 年-5 m 等深线变化评估了上海石化近岸海堤的 稳定性。结果表明： 1972—2020 年间上海石化前沿海床整体以侵蚀为主, 石化近岸东侧以及西侧局部的浅滩侵蚀明显, 城 市沙滩中段、第 6 次围堤处以及码头东岸海堤稳定性最低。基于上述研究结果, 考虑海堤稳定性薄弱段出现极端风暴洪水漫 堤或溃堤情景, 模拟并分析了上海石化 2010 年 、2030 年和2050 年遭受千年一遇极端风暴洪水的风险。结果显示： 在 2010 年基准年情景下, 受海岸侵蚀作用最明显的城市沙滩和第6 次围堤区域遭遇极端风暴洪水的风险最高, 到 2050 年, 当前稳 定性较好的海堤安全性也将大大降低, 与 2010 年相比, 上海石化近岸地区的直接经济损失将会增加近 3 倍。     

Cyclone Gonu storm surge in Oman

Super Cyclone Gonu is the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea. Gonu caused coastal damage due to storm surge and storm wave impact as well as wadi flooding. High water marks, overland flow depths, and inundation distances were measured in the coastal flood zones along the Gulf of Oman from 1 to 4 August 2007. The high water marks peaked at Ras al-Hadd at the eastern tip of Oman exceeding 5 m. The storm surge of Gonu is modeled using the Advanced Circulation Model (ADCIRC). The multi-hazard aspect is analyzed by comparing observations from Cyclone Gonu with the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.     

Data assimilation for a coastal area morphodynamic model: Morecambe Bay

This paper investigates the use of data assimilation in coastal area morphodynamic modelling using Morecambe Bay as a study site. A simple model of the bay has been enhanced with a data assimilation scheme to better predict large-scale changes in bathymetry observed in the bay over a 3-year period. The 2DH decoupled morphodynamic model developed for the work is described, as is the optimal interpolation scheme used to assimilate waterline observations into the model run. Each waterline was acquired from a SAR satellite image and is essentially a contour of the bathymetry at some level within the inter-tidal zone of the bay. For model parameters calibrated against validation observations, model performance is good, even without data assimilation. However the use of data assimilation successfully compensates for a particular failing of the model, and helps to keep the model bathymetry on track. It also improves the ability of the model to predict future bathymetry. Although the benefits of data assimilation are demonstrated using waterline observations, any observations of morphology could potentially be used. These results suggest that data assimilation should be considered for use in future coastal area morphodynamic models.     

Predicting tidal flooding of urbanized embayments: A modeling framework and data requirements

Numerous urbanized embayments in California are at risk of flooding during extreme high tides caused by a combination of astronomical, meteorologic and climatic factors (e.g., El Niño), and the risk will increase as sea levels rise and storminess intensifies. Across California, the potential exists for billions of dollars in losses by 2100 and predictive inundation models will be relied upon at the local level to plan adaptation strategies and forecast localized flood impacts to support emergency management. However, the predictive skill of urban inundation models for extreme tide events has not been critically examined particularly in relation to data quality and flood mapping methodologies. With a case study of Newport Beach, California, we show that tidal flooding can be resolved along streets and at individual parcels using a 2D hydraulic inundation model that captures embayment amplification of the tide, overtopping of flood defenses, and overland flow along streets and into parcels. Furthermore, hydraulic models outperform equilibrium flood mapping methodologies which ignore hydraulic connectivity and are strongly biased towards over-prediction of flood extent. However, infrastructure geometry data including flood barriers, street and parcel elevations are crucial to accurate flood prediction. A real time kinematic (RTK) survey instrument with an error of approximately 1 cm (RMSE) is found to be suitable for barrier height measurement, but an error of approximately15 cm (RMSE) typical of aerial laser scanning or LiDAR is found to be inadequate. Finally, we note that the harbor waterfront in Newport Beach is lined by a patchwork of public and private parcels and flood barriers of varied designs and integrity. Careful attention to hydraulic connectivity (e.g., low points and gaps in barriers) is needed for successful flood prediction.     

Modeling sea dike breaching induced by breaking wave impact-laboratory experiments and computational model

Sea dikes are of crucial importance for the defense systems of low-lying coastal areas in countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, etc. As sea dike breaching induced by storm surges is regarded as one of the main causes of coastal flood disasters, reliable predictions of both the breach initiation, formation and breach development is urgently needed. Although a simple preliminary model for the simulation of sea dike breaching initiated from the seaside was developed (Stanczak et al., 2006), its limitations showed the necessity for further research and for the development of a more detailed model. This paper therefore provides a summary of the results of laboratory experiments on the erosion of grass and clay revetment of a sea dike induced by breaking wave impact and describes the new detailed computational model, including an uncertainty analysis.     

Optimum design height of cofferdams

The cost of Cofferdams as a function of design height is described by a basic lot size model. The cost components include construction and flooding risk cost, the former increases while the latter decreases with design height. Using an exponential function for the expected number of floods, together with Poisson assumptions, an expression is derived for the probability of no flooding. From this expression a reliability chart is constructed that can be used to estimate the flooding risk for a given design height and period. By minimizing the cost objective function, a design chart is also presented giving optimum design height in terms of parameters such as: estimated daily flooding cost, construction cost per unit height, average flood duration, mean and variance of the hydrological data. Sensitivity of the solution to errors in estimating model parameters is discussed.