Showing papers by "Mary A. Cialone published in 2011"

Interaction of Barrier Islands and Storms: Implications for Flood Risk Reduction in Louisiana and Mississippi

Abstract: Coastal barrier islands are natural lines of defense and an integral part of a comprehensive flood risk reduction and management plan. A high resolution numerical modeling system capable of representing complicated coastal landscapes and simulating all the primary relevant physical processes is applied to better understand the influence of barrier island restoration on hurricane surge propagation. Model results indicate that barrier island restoration may significantly alter surge pathways and flood volumes of surge reaching inland coastal areas as open water passes become the dominant flow mechanism during a storm event. However, the exclusion of the morphologic evolution of a barrier island during a storm's passage is a significant limitation with the existing numerical models and is currently under development. The results in this paper demonstrate the need to include morphologic changes to fully evaluate the impact barrier islands have on water levels at the mainland coast.

Coastal storm modeling - system integration

Abstract: The US Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center's Coastal Storm Modeling System (CSTORM-MS) is a physics-based modeling capability for simulating tropical and extra- tropical storm, wind, wave, water level and coastal response (erosion, breaching, and accretion). The goal is to more rigorously represent the underlying physical processes and reduce dependence on empirical tuning factors, while also providing a powerful and user-friendly interface to the models. Focused research and a spiral development strategy are producing an integrated suite of tools to support a wide range of coastal engineering needs. CSTORM-MS provides for a robust, standardized approach to establishing the risk of coastal communities to future occurrences of storm events. Details of the system are presented.

Screening Method for Determining Coastal Storm Inundation Limits

Abstract: Planning and development in the coastal zone requires knowledge about the risk of flooding from coastal storms and hurricanes. Critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, power plants, and emergency response centers, when possible, should be sited in areas beyond the surge limits of a "worst-case" hurricane defined by a maximum possible intensity (MPI). Knowledge about the surge limits in a coastal area also provides a critical elevation contour beyond which it is known that coastal storm flood risk need not be considered. The purpose of this paper is to document a screening methodology to determine if a site is at risk for flooding from coastal storms. The methodology incorporates an open- coast surge calculation, wind wave effects, tide, and uncertainty to estimate an appropriately conservative elevation threshold that determines if a given site requires a more detailed estimation of the coastal flood risk. The method is demonstrated on the USA Texas and Mississippi coasts.

Influence of sea level rise and river flow rate on storm surge in the mississippi river, usa

Abstract: A significant issue in the design of flood protection in southeastern Louisiana is the consideration of relative sea level rise (RSLR) due to eustatic sea level rise and local subsidence. The Mississippi River levee designs must also take into account the effect of the river flow rate at the time of landfall for a particular storm on surge levels in the river. This paper examines the combined effect of sea level rise and river flow rate on surge levels in the Mississippi River. The focus is on estimating the potential impact of RSLR and river flow rate on hurricane surge in the lower Mississippi River by examining the range of surge response to these two varying conditions. This is accomplished through numerical surge modeling of 17 hypothetical hurricanes for a base condition and with the inclusion of a projected sea level rise and various river flow rates.