Modeling and Simulation of Storm Surge on Staten Island to Understand Inundation Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Brigantine, New Jersey, and had a transformative impact on Staten Island and the New York Metropolitan area. Of the 43 New York City fatalities, 23 occurred on Staten Island. The borough, with a population of approximately 500,000, experienced some of the most devastating impacts of the storm. Since Hurricane Sandy, protective dunes have been constructed on the southeast shore of Staten Island. ADCIRC+SWAN model simulations run on The City University of New York's Cray XE6M, housed at the College of Staten Island, using updated topographic data show that the coast of Staten Island is still susceptible to tidal surge similar to those generated by Hurricane Sandy. Sandy hindcast simulations of storm surges focusing on Staten Island are in good agreement with observed storm tide measurements. Model results calculated from fine-scaled and coarsescaled computational grids demonstrate that finer grids better resolve small differences in the topography of critical hydraulic control structures, which affect storm surge inundation levels. The storm surge simulations, based on poststorm topography obtained from high-resolution lidar, provide much-needed information to understand Staten Island's changing vulnerability to storm surge inundation. The results of fine-scale storm surge simulations can be used to inform efforts to improve resiliency to future storms. For example, protective barriers contain planned gaps in the dunes to provide for beach access that may inadvertently increase the vulnerability of the area.

A New 1D/2D Coupled Modeling Approach for a Riverine‐Estuarine System Under Storm Events: Application to Delaware River Basin

“…Although some of the open source ocean models have shown potential for inclusion within the NWM approach, the well‐established hydrodynamic ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) model coupled with third‐generation wave WAVEWATCH III (WW3) model has been broadly used in recent years to simulate storm surge, tides, and waves. ADCIRC (Luettich et al, 1992) is useful for studying storm impacts and flood forecasting in coastal zones (Kress et al, 2016; Orton et al, 2015). WW3 is also widely used in offshore and nearshore applications in high‐resolution numerical domains.…”

Development of damage curves for buildings near La Rochelle during storm Xynthia based on insurance claims and hydrodynamic simulations

“…The wave model used here, SWAN, does not include infragravity waves, nor does the combined Delft3D-SWAN flow-wave model simulate wave overtopping of dikes, possi- bly leading to an underestimation of the hydrodynamic forces on buildings, which would affect the resulting damage functions. However, consideration of wave overtopping and infragravity effects requires either phase-resolving wave simulations or empirical relations specific to the local topography (Lashley et al, 2020b), though this is beyond the scope of the current study and is similarly neglected by most other large-scale inundation studies (i.e., Sebastian et al, 2014;Kress et al, 2016;Kowaleski et al, 2020). Nonetheless, the effect of infragravity oscillations and wave overtopping on resulting damage is an important item for future research.…”

Development of damage curves for buildings near La Rochelle during Storm Xynthia based on insurance claims and hydrodynamic simulations

“…The wave model used here, SWAN, does not include infragravity waves, nor does the combined Delft3D/SWAN flow/wave model simulate wave overtopping of dikes, possibly leading to an underestimation of the hydrodynamic forces on buildings, which would affect the resulting damage functions. However, consideration of wave overtopping and infragravity effects requires either phase-resolving wave simulations or empirical relations specific to the local topography (Lashley et al, 2020b), though this is beyond the scope of the current study, and is similarly neglected by most other large-scale inundation studies (i.e., Sebastian et al, 2014;Kress et al, 2016: Kowaleski et al, 2020. Nonetheless, the effect of infragravity oscillations and wave overtopping on resulting damage is an important item for future research.…”