Assessing the role of mangrove forest in reducing coastal inundation during major hurricanes

Abstract

A vegetation-resolving CH3D-SWAN surge-wave modeling system is used to examine the role of mangroves and salt marshes along the shore of Biscayne Bay in buffering surge, wave, and inundation in Southeast Florida during Hurricane Andrew (1992). First, the 3D vegetation-resolving model is validated by comparing the simulated and measured high water marks from post-hurricane field survey, debris lines, and time series of water level at the Haulover Pier. The simulated water levels and magnitude and extent of maximum inundation agree well with the observed data, whereas the removal of vegetation from the model leads to massive flooding with increased total inundation volume and total inundation area in the highly populated low-lying area behind the Biscayne Bay. Additional simulations show that the surgewave-inundation buffering capacity of the mangrove forest depends on the vertical structure of the wetted leaf area index, A w and the frontal leaf area index, A f . The study demonstrates the capability of CH3D-SWAN in quantifying the role of mangroves in buffering storm surge, wave, and inundation, and demonstrates its potential application for assessing the effectiveness of coastal wetland restoration projects. Meanwhile, the accurate representation of vegetation's vertical structure can enhance the numerical modeling of flow-vegetation interaction processes.

The state of the world’s mangroves in the 21st century under climate change

“…Recent expansion of mangroves into saltmarshes is likely to have large impacts on the structure, function and service provisioning of coastal wetlands (Kelleway et al, 2017). Although mangrove encroachment may increase nutrient storage and improve storm protection (Sheng & Zou, 2017), Kelleway et al (2017) hypothesized that declines will occur in habitat availability for fauna requiring open vegetation structure, as well as in the recreational and cultural activities associated with this fauna. They further project that the impact on provisional services such as fisheries productivity and cultural services will be site-specific and dependent on the species involved (Kelleway et al, 2017).…”

“…While these potential gains do not nearly balance out continued anthropogenic losses, they tell us that the true state of the world's mangroves is more nuanced than scientists, managers, and policy makers sometimes communicate. Continued research on the basic biology and hydrology of mangroves is critical (Contreras et al, 2017;Lovelock et al, 2017b;Pérez et al, 2017), as well as the provisioning (Benzeev et al, 2017;Palacios & Cantera, 2017) and regulating ecosystem services Kamal et al, 2017;Sheng & Zou, 2017) they provide, because the interplay between mangrove expansion and biological requirements can manifest at very small spatial scales. There is a particularly active research community focusing on the role of mangrove invertebrates and their biology (Bakkar et al, 2017;Castellanos-Galindo et al, 2017;Fusi et al, 2017;Hendy & Cragg, 2017;Pestana et al, 2017;Raw et al, 2017;Saintilan & Mazumder, 2017).…”

“…Tropical and sub-tropical mangrove forests are considered a particularly important ecosystem for human coastal communities due to their provision of ecosystem services, such as timber and fuelwood (Palacios & Cantera, 2017), fisheries (Benzeev et al, 2017;Goecke & Carstenn, 2017), sediment trapping (Kamal et al, 2017), coastal defense Sheng & Zou, 2017), and carbon storage (Donato et al, 2011;Kelleway et al, 2016;Yando et al, 2016). Nevertheless, mangrove forests are considered one of the most threatened ecosystems across the tropics (Duke et al, 2007).…”

The Impact of Tidal Flooding on Decreasing Land Values in the Areas of Tugu District, Semarang City

“…Data show that from 1995 to 2006 the coastline in the study area retreated to 293 m and there had been loss of some land (Nugraha 2015;Tamba 2016). Damage to natural barriers in the form of mangrove forests (Akbar et al 2017;Sheng & Zou 2017;Syahputra, et al 2018;Soeprobowati et al 2020) also affects the rate of flood inundation in Semarang City (Ikhsyan 2017). While the level of mangrove vegetation density has not yet recovered and there is not enough budget allocation for infrastructure development in the form of embankments, breakwater walls and puddle water disposal pumps make the threat of flooding continues to occur, resulting in an increasing number of losses suffered by the community.…”

An objective and efficient method for estimating probabilistic coastal inundation hazards

“…Therefore, in this study, CH3D is dynamically coupled to SWAN (Booij et al 1999) to simulate surge, wave, and flooding in high-resolution coastal region, while ADCIRC and WaveWatch-III (Tolman 2009) are used to provide offshore open boundary conditions for CH3D and SWAN, respectively. This integrated storm surge modeling system, CH3D-SSMS (Sheng et al 2006), is capable of simulating flooding and drying and has been used extensively for simulating and forecasting numerous storm surges along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts (e.g., Sheng et al 2010a, b;Davis et al 2010;Paramygin et al 2016;Sheng and Zou 2017). In a US Southeastern Regional Storm Surge Model Testbed (Sheng et al 2012a), it was found that CH3D-SSMS was the most efficient high fidelity surge model, following closely behind the low fidelity SLOSH model, while possessing similar accuracy as other high fidelity models.…”