Mapping Hurricane Rita inland storm tide

Abstract

Flood-inundation data are most useful for decision makers when presented in the context of maps of effected communities and (or) areas. But because the data are scarce and rarely cover the full extent of the flooding, interpolation and extrapolation of the information are needed. Many geographic information systems (GIS) provide various interpolation tools, but these tools often ignore the effects of the topographic and hydraulic features that influence flooding. A barrier mapping method was developed to improve maps of storm tide produced by Hurricane Rita. Maps were developed for the maximum storm tide and at 3-hour intervals from midnight (0000 hour) through noon (1200 hour) on September 24, 2005. The improved maps depict storm-tide elevations and the extent of flooding. The extent of storm-tide inundation from the improved maximum storm-tide map was compared to the extent of flood-inundation from a map prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The boundaries from these two maps generally compared quite well especially along the Calcasieu River. Also a cross-section profile that parallels the Louisiana coast was developed from the maximum storm-tide map and included FEMA high-water marks.

On the importance of the forward speed of hurricanes in storm surge forecasting: A numerical study

“…Hindcast simulations of Hurricane Rita using SLOSH and ADCIRC had similar inland issues, which were attributed to the inability of models to account for differences in bottom friction between water and marsh [ URS Group , 2006]. Our results also show good agreement with other published work on Hurricane Rita's inundation [ Federal Emergency Management Agency , 2008; Berenbrock et al , 2009].…”

Drought stress variability in ancient Near Eastern agricultural systems evidenced by δ 13 C in barley grain

“…The barriers, as a means of drought-stress border, alter the process of interpolation by forcing the trend surface to go around the barrier instead of crossing it (64). The final representation can be used to estimate areas with respectively higher or lower water stress.…”

Using Non-authoritative Sources During Emergencies in Urban Areas

“…The maximum water levels for each model node were extracted for the 29th and the 30th of November and converted to the NAVD88 vertical datum. A spline interpolation with tension was applied to create a maximum water level surface for the study region according to the methodology suggested by Berenbrok et al (2009). Finally, the water levels were subtracted from the DEM to calculate the spatial flooded extent ( Fig.…”