Assessing storm surge hazard and impact of sea level rise in Lesser Antilles-Case study of Martinique

Abstract

Abstract. In the Lesser Antilles, coastal inundations from hurricane-induced storm surges cause great threats to lives, properties, and ecosystems. Assessing current and future storm surge hazard with sufficient spatial resolution is of primary interest to help coastal planners and decision makers develop mitigation and adaptation measures. Here, we use wave-current numerical models and statistical methods to investigate worst case scenarios and 100-year surge levels for the case study of Martinique, under present climate or considering a potential sea-level rise. Results confirm that the wave setup plays a major role in Lesser Antilles, where the narrow island shelf impedes the piling-up of large amounts of wind-driven water on the shoreline during extreme events. The radiation stress gradients thus contribute significantly to the total surge, up to 100 % in some cases. The non-linear interactions of sea level rise with bathymetry and topography are generally found to be relatively small in Martinique, but can reach several tens of centimeters in low-lying areas where the inundation extent is strongly enhanced compared to present conditions. These findings further emphasize the importance of waves for developing operational storm surge warning systems in the Lesser Antilles, and encourage caution when using static methods to assess the impact of sea level rise on storm surge hazard.

Improving Parametric Cyclonic Wind Fields Using Recent Satellite Remote Sensing Data

“…Nonetheless, parametric models deriving cyclonic wind fields from a few input parameters (pressure drop, maximum velocity, wind radii, location of the cyclone center, etc) are still widely used by the research and insurance communities, due to their simplicity, efficiency, and low-computational costs [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. This is especially true for studies investigating storm surge hazards with statistical approaches, which require the construction of a large number of synthetic storms [13][14][15][16].…”