Abstract
It is well known that seawalls are effective at stopping common storm surges in urban areas. This paper examines whether seawalls should be built to withstand the storm surge from a major tropical cyclone. We estimate the extra cost of building the wall tall enough to stop such surges and the extra flood benefit of this additional height. We estimate the surge probability distribution from six tidal stations spread along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. We then measure how valuable the vulnerable buildings behind a 100 m wall must be to justify such a tall wall at each site. Combining information about the probability distribution of storm surge, the average elevation of protected buildings, and the damage rate at each building, we find that the value of protected buildings behind this 100 m wall must be in the hundreds of millions to justify the wall. We also examine the additional flood benefit and cost of protecting a km2 of land in nearby cities at each site. The density of buildings in coastal cities in the United States are generally more than an order of magnitude too low to justify seawalls this high. Seawalls are effective, but not at stopping the surge damage from major tropical cyclones.
Highlights
Tropical cyclones globally cause about USD 26 billion of damage per year and they cause USD15 billion of damage in the United States alone [1]
The results suggest that massive seawalls are generally not an effective tool to reduce the damage from major tropical cyclone storm surges
This paper examines whether seawalls could be an effective strategy to prevent the damage from major tropical cyclone storm surges
Summary
Tropical cyclones globally cause about USD 26 billion of damage per year and they cause USD. 15 billion of damage in the United States alone [1]. This damage to buildings and infrastructure is expected to increase over time as coastal regions of the world expand their population and income. The bulk of the damage from tropical cyclones tends to come when major storms strike large metropolitan areas. A large fraction of this damage is from storm surge. Should countries protect major coastal cities by building massive storm walls to stop major hurricane surges? This paper evaluates the economic effectiveness of building seawalls tall enough to reduce the damage from major tropical cyclones
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