scholarly journals Hurricane Matthew in 2100: effects of extreme sea level rise scenarios on a highly valued coastal area (Palm Beach, FL, USA)

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Boyden ◽  
Elisa Casella ◽  
Christopher Daly ◽  
Alessio Rovere

AbstractSea-level rise represents a severe hazard for populations living within low-elevation coastal zones and is already largely affecting coastal communities worldwide. As sea level continues to rise following unabated greenhouse gas emissions, the exposure of coastal communities to inundation and erosion will increase exponentially. These impacts will be further magnified under extreme storm conditions. In this paper, we focus on one of the most valuable coastal real estate markets globally (Palm Beach, FL). We use XBeach, an open-source hydro and morphodynamic model, to assess the impact of a major tropical cyclone (Hurricane Matthew, 2016) under three different sea-level scenarios. The first scenario (modern sea level) serves as a baseline against which other model runs are evaluated. The other two runs use different 2100 sea-level projections, localized to the study site: (i) IPCC RCP 8.5 (0.83 m by 2100) and (ii) same as (i), but including enhanced Antarctic ice loss (1.62 m by 2100). Our results show that the effective doubling of future sea level under heightened Antarctic ice loss amplifies flow velocity and wave height, leading to a 46% increase in eroded beach volume and the overtopping of coastal protection structures. This further exacerbates the vulnerability of coastal properties on the island, leading to significant increases in parcel inundation.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm L. Spaulding ◽  
Annette Grilli ◽  
Chris Damon ◽  
Reza Hashemi ◽  
Soroush Kouhi ◽  
...  

Many coastal communities in the US use base flood elevation (BFE) maps for the 100-year return period, specified on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), to design structures and infrastructure. The FIRMs are increasingly known to have serious problems in accurately specifying the risk coastal communities face, as most recently evidenced during hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017 and Florence and Michael in 2018. The FIRM BFE maps also do not include the impact of sea level rise, which clearly needs to be considered in the design of coastal structures over the next several decades given recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sea level rise (SLR) projections. Here, we generate alternative BFE maps (STORMTOOLS Design Elevation (SDE) maps) for coastal waters of Rhode Island (RI) using surge predictions from tropical and extratropical storms of the coupled surge-wave models from the US Army Corp of Engineers, North Atlantic Comprehensive Coast Study (NACCS). Wave predictions are based on application of a steady state, spectral wave model (STWAVE), while impacts of coastal erosion/accretion and changes of geomorphology are modeled using XBeach. The high-resolution application of XBeach to the southern RI shoreline has dramatically increased the ability to represent the details of dune erosion and overtopping and the associated development of surge channels and over-wash fans and the resulting landward impact on inundation and waves. All methods used were consistent with FEMA guidelines for the study area and used FEMA-approved models. Maps were generated for 0, 2 ft (0.6 m), 5 ft (1.5 m), 7 ft (2.1 m), and 10 ft (3.1 m) of sea level rise, reflecting NOAA high estimates at various times for the study area through 2100. Results of the simulations are shown for both the southern RI shoreline (South Coast) and Narragansett Bay, to facilitate communication of projected BFEs to the general public. The maps are hosted on the STORMTOOLS ESRI Hub to facilitate access to the data. They are also now part of the RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) risk-based permitting system. The user interface allows access to all supporting data including grade elevation, inundation depth, and wave crest heights as well as corresponding FEMA FIRM BFEs and associated zones.


2021 ◽  
Vol 880 (1) ◽  
pp. 012015
Author(s):  
Samera Samsuddin Sah ◽  
Khairul Nizam Abdul Maulud ◽  
Nurul A’idah Abd Rahim ◽  
Othman A. Karim ◽  
Suraya Sharil

Abstract Kuala Kedah is a coastal area where the majority of the community are paddy farmers and fishermen. Almost the entire coastal area is used as a paddy cultivation area. However, this area faces the threat of seawater intrusion into land due to climate change driven sea-level rise. The rising seawater has affected the surrounding area, not only in terms of crop yields but also property and livelihood to the locals. Therefore, this study is designed to detect and analyze the progress of seawater on land at the Kuala Kedah coastal area using a hydrodynamic approach. Mike 21 software was used to simulate the hydrodynamic effects on 2 segments (NA and SA) in this study area by considering two conditions namely Condition 1 (K1) and Condition 2 (K2) which are respectively with and without coastal protection structure. However, this structure was only built along the 2.5 km shoreline in the NA segment and not in the SA segment. The findings show that the coastal protection structure in K2 is effective in reducing 50 % of the impact of sea level rise in year 2100 at NA segment, while only 10 % at SA segment. Therefore, the construction of these structures permanently should be given consideration by local authorities in planning future development to ensure lowland areas are protected from coastal floods.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3538
Author(s):  
Andre de Souza de Lima ◽  
Arslaan Khalid ◽  
Tyler Will Miesse ◽  
Felicio Cassalho ◽  
Celso Ferreira ◽  
...  

The Southern Brazilian Coast is highly susceptible to storm surges that often lead to coastal flooding and erosive processes, significantly impacting coastal communities. In addition, climate change is expected to result in expressive increases in wave heights due to more intense and frequent storms, which, in conjunction with sea-level rise (SLR), has the potential to exacerbate the impact of storm surges on coastal communities. The ability to predict and simulate such events provides a powerful tool for coastal risk reduction and adaptation. In this context, this study aims to investigate how accurately storm surge events can be simulated in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean employing the coupled ADCIRC+SWAN hydrodynamic and phase-averaged wave numerical modeling framework given the significant data scarcity constraints of the region. The model’s total water level (TWL) and significant wave height (Hs) outputs, driven by different sources of meteorological forcing, i.e., the Fifth Generation of ECMWF Atmospheric Reanalysis (ERA 5), the Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2), and the Global Forecast System (GFS), were validated for three recent storm events that affected the coast (2016, 2017, and 2019). In order to assess the potentially increasing storm surge impacts due to sea-level rise, a case study was implemented to locally evaluate the modeling approach using the most accurate model setup for two 2100 SLR projections (RCP 4.5 and 8.5). Despite a TWL underestimation in all sets of simulations, the CFSv2 model stood out as the most consistent meteorological forcing for the hindcasting of the storm surge and waves in the numerical model, with an RMSE range varying from 0.19 m to 0.37 m, and an RMSE of 0.56 m for Hs during the most significant event. ERA5 was highlighted as the second most accurate meteorological forcing, while adequately simulating the peak timings. The SLR study case demonstrated a possible increase of up to 82% in the TWL during the same event. Despite the limitations imposed by the lack of continuous and densely distributed observational data, as well as up to date topobathymetric datasets, the proposed framework was capable of expanding TWL and Hs information, previously available for a handful of gauge stations, to a spatially distributed and temporally unlimited scale. This more comprehensive understanding of such extreme events represents valuable knowledge for the potential implementation of more adequate coastal management and engineering practices for the Brazilian coastal zone, especially under changing climate conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 3431
Author(s):  
Qing Zhao ◽  
Jiayi Pan ◽  
Adam Devlin ◽  
Qing Xu ◽  
Maochuan Tang ◽  
...  

Non-climate-related anthropogenic processes and frequently encountered natural hazards exacerbate the risk in coastal zones and megacities and amplify local vulnerability. Coastal risk is amplified by the combination of sea level rise (SLR) resulting from climate change, associated tidal evolution, and the local sinking of land resulting from anthropogenic and natural hazards. In this framework, the authors of this investigation have actively contributed to the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Dragon IV initiative through a project (ID. 32294) that was explicitly designed to address the issue of monitoring coastal and delta river regions through Earth Observation (EO) technologies. The project’s primary goals were to provide a complete characterization of the changes in target scenes over time and provide estimates of future regional sea level changes to derive submerged coastal areas and wave fields. Suggestions are also provided for implementing coastal protection measures in order to adapt and mitigate the multifactor coastal vulnerability. In order to achieve these tasks, well-established remote sensing technologies based on the joint exploitation of multi-spectral information gathered at different spectral wavelengths, the exploitation of advanced Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) techniques for the retrieval of ground deformations, the realization of geophysical analyses, and the use of satellite altimeters and tide gauge data have effectively been employed. The achieved results, which mainly focus on selected sensitive regions including the city of Shanghai, the Pearl River Delta in China, and the coastal city of Saint Petersburg in Europe, provide essential assets for planning present and future scientific activities devoted to monitoring such fragile environments. These analyses are crucial for assessing the factors that will amplify the vulnerability of low-elevation coastal zones.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract The purpose of this study is to: (1) identify the disaster in coastal areas due to sea level rise (2) identify the structural disaster mitigation conducted by coastal communities, and (3) identify the adaptation of Green Belt Business Group (Kelompok Usaha Bersama “KUB” Sabuk Hijau) in overcoming the disaster caused by sea level rise. This study used a qualitative approach with the methods of observation, in-depth interview, FGD, and documentation. The results showed that the disasters faced by coastal communities in the study area are: the overflow of seawater up to the houses, wells became salty and unusable, ponds destroyed by flooding, the failure of the salt farming crop, fisherman's low income. The mitigation structure which was done is by making a green belt of 44 hectares mangrove forests to reduce catastrophic losses. The activity was able to save the pond that was damaged, restore the salt farm, recover the coastal ecosystem, return the wells from saltiness so that it can be used again, keep the houses from flooding, and able to add the family incomes from the honey mangrove and coffee mangrove.


Author(s):  
Koujiro TSUCHIDA ◽  
Makoto TAMURA ◽  
Naoko KUMANO ◽  
Hiromune YOKOKI

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1142
Author(s):  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Geraldine Fauville ◽  
Anna Carolina Muller Queiroz ◽  
Kelly L. Leo ◽  
Alyssa G. Newton Mann ◽  
...  

As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.


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