Title

Storm surge Simulations for hurricane hugo (1989): On the significance of inundation areas

Authors

Authors

D. Dietsche; S. C. Hagen;P. Bacopoulos

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Waterw. Port Coast. Ocean Eng.-ASCE

Keywords

UNSTRUCTURED MESH GENERATION; FINITE-ELEMENT MODEL; ENGLISH-CHANNEL; NORTH-SEA; EQUATION; TIDES; ATLANTIC; DOMAIN; PROGRESS; Engineering, Civil; Engineering, Ocean; Water Resources

Abstract

The storm surge generated by Hurricane Hugo (1989) is reproduced for the purposes of (1) evaluating the significance of including inland flooding areas and corresponding levels of spatial resolution and (2) assessing the spatial variability of near-inlet boundary forcings with respect to storm surge hydrographs. The study focuses on the coastal regions of South Carolina, incorporating inundation areas between Charleston and Shallotte Inlet and including Winyah Bay and the Waccamaw River. The region of interest is modeled with five variations of an unstructured, finite-element mesh, including a localized coarse grid with and without floodplains, a localized fine grid with and without floodplains, and a large-domain approach that includes floodplains and the continental shelf and deep ocean. Simulation results demonstrate that the inclusion of inland flooding areas significantly improves the description of storm surge generation within coastal regions. While the large-domain approach is shown to be beneficial, it is determined that the coarse mesh resolution of the floodplains is sufficient. Computed water surface elevations at specific locations surrounding Winyah Bay Inlet indicate that storm surge hydrographs are highly spatially dependent near inlets, as opposed to the astronomical tides, which exhibit minimal variance in space around the inlet environment.

Journal Title

Journal of Waterway Port Coastal and Ocean Engineering-Asce

Volume

133

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

183

Last Page

191

WOS Identifier

WOS:000246164800002

ISSN

0733-950X

Share

COinS