Recent Enhancements and Applications of an Integrated Storm Surge Modeling System: CH3D-SSMS

An integrated storm surge modeling system, CH3D-SSMS, has been enhanced and used to simulate and forecast hurricane induced storm surge, wave, and coastal inundation in high resolution coastal regions during several recent hurricanes (2003–2005). CH3D-SSMS is based on the curvilinear-grid hydrodynamic model CH3D, which is coupled to a coastal wave model SWAN, a basin-scale surge model (ADCIRC) and a basin-scale wave model (WW3). In the coastal region, CH3D and SWAN use the same curvilinear grid to ensure accurate simulation of surge, wave, and inundation. The CH3D-SSMS uses GFDL, WRF, and ANA (analytic) winds for forecasting; and H*Wind and ANA winds for hindcasting. The CH3D-SSMS now includes coastal domains in TX, LA, MS, AL, FL, SC, NC, VA, and MD, and runs very efficiently in real-time. This paper presents recent enhancements and applications of CH3D-SSMS, with example results for Hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Hurricane Tolbert (1948).