Abstract
Predictions of storm surge and flooding require models with higher resolution of coastal regions, to describe fine-scale bathymetric and topographic variations, natural and artificial channels, flow features, and barriers. However, models for real-time forecasting often use a lower resolution to improve efficiency. There is a need to understand how resolution of inland regions can translate to predictive accuracy, but previous studies have not considered differences between models that both represent conveyance into floodplains and are intended to be used in real time. In this study, the effects of model resolution and coverage are explored using comparisons between forecast-ready and production-grade models that both represent floodplains along the US southeast coast, but with typical resolutions in coastal regions of 400 and 50 m, respectively. For two storms that impacted the US southeast coast, it is shown that, although the overall error statistics are similar between simulations on the two meshes, the production-grade model allowed a greater conveyance into inland regions, which improved the tide and surge signals in small channels and increased the inundation volumes between 40% and 60%. Its extended coverage also removed water level errors of 20–40 cm associated with boundary effects in smaller regional models.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge contributions by Chloe Stokes in the processing of the regional meshes. This material is based on work supported by the US Department of Homeland Security under Grant No. 2015-ST-061-ND0001-01. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the US Department of Homeland Security. This work was also supported by the NSF Grant No. ENH-1635784.
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Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 1 • January 2022
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Feb 10, 2021
Accepted: Aug 20, 2021
Published online: Nov 9, 2021
Published in print: Jan 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Apr 9, 2022
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