Abstract
Typhoon-induced storm surges are catastrophic disasters in coastal areas worldwide, although typhoon surges are not extremely high in Taiwan. However, the rising water level around an estuary could be a block that obstructs the flow of water away from the estuary and indirectly forms an overflow in the middle or lower reaches of a river if the occurrence of the highest storm surge (HSS) coincides with the highest astronomical tide (HAT). Therefore, assessing the highest storm tide (HST, a combination of the HSS and HAT) hazard level along the coast of Taiwan is particularly important to an early warning of riverine inundation. This study hindcasted the storm surges of 122 historical typhoon events from 1979 to 2018 using a high-resolution, unstructured-grid, surge-wave fully coupled model and a hybrid typhoon wind model. The long-term recording measurements at 28 tide-measuring stations around Taiwan were used to analyze the HAT characteristics. The hindcasted HSSs of each typhoon category (the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan classified typhoon events into nine categories according to the typhoon’s track) were extracted and superposed on the HATs to produce the individual potential HST hazard maps. Each map was classified into six hazard levels (I to VI). Finally, a comprehensive potential HST hazard map was created based on the superposition of the HSSs from 122 typhoon events and HATs.
Highlights
Typhoons are deemed the most dangerous natural disasters and cause extensive and devastating damage, economic losses, and deaths around the world every year because of their most destructive impacts, such as heavy rainfall, violent winds, storm waves, and storm surges
Data based on the Taiwan Vertical Datum 2001 (TWVD2001) and the vertical geodetic datum applied in Taiwan from 28 tidal-measuring stations were first employed to analyze the local high water level characteristics
highest astronomical tide (HAT) that exceeded 2.0 m were distributed in the northwestern coast of Taiwan because the HATs were only under or equal to 1.0 m for most of the eastern and northeastern coast of Taiwan
Summary
Typhoons ( known as tropical cyclones or hurricanes) are deemed the most dangerous natural disasters and cause extensive and devastating damage, economic losses, and deaths around the world every year because of their most destructive impacts, such as heavy rainfall, violent winds, storm waves, and storm surges. A storm surge is a typhoon-induced tsunami-like phenomenon that can produce flooding in coastal regions. It is a measure of the rise of water levels (or water volumes) above what would be expected by the normal movement related to tides. The severity of a storm surge-caused inundation is mainly dominated by the shallowness of coastal waters, the orientation of the water body and the timing of tides.
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