DEVELOPMENT OF A STORM EROSION CLIMATOLOGY FOR THE NEW JERSEY COAST, US

Laura Lemke,Jon K Miller

doi:10.9753/icce.v36.papers.93

Abstract

In this study, the Storm Erosion Index (SEI), developed by Miller and Livermont (2008), is used to reevaluate storms that have impacted New Jersey over the past several decades based on their erosion potential. This index considers all three drivers of coastal erosion including wave height, water level, and storm duration and has been shown to more closely correlated to observed erosion than more traditional indices (Miller and Livermont 2008). Here, storms are assessed at thirteen shoreline segments defined along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey. When reevaluated with SEI, the top three storms across all shoreline segments are the December 1992 norâ€™easter, the Veteranâ€™s Day Storm in November 2009, and Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. In general, the December 1992 norâ€™easter and Hurricane Sandy are more highly ranked in the northern half of the state with Hurricane Sandy having a maximum return period of 38 years. The Veteranâ€™s Day Storm on the other hand is more highly ranked in the southern half of the state having a maximum return period of 42 years. A closer look at these three storms illustrates the importance of each of the three drivers of coastal erosion in determining erosion potential. A particular emphasis is placed on storm duration which explains why the Veteranâ€™s Day Storm (td = ~90 hours) outranks Hurricane Sandy (td = ~60 hours) in the southern portion of the state. The assessment performed in this study produces a record of historical storms ranked by SEI that future storms can be compared to. This allows for an understanding of the erosion potential of future storms in the context of what has occurred previously.

Highlights

In the past several decades there have been a number of storms that have impacted the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and caused significant damage along its coast
Data As discussed, the purpose of this research is to produce a historical record of storms which have occurred over the last several decades in New Jersey and to classify them based on their erosion potential using the Storm Erosion Index
The Storm Erosion Index was applied here to establish a historical record of storms for each region of New Jersey where storms are ranked based on erosion potential

Summary

Introduction

In the past several decades there have been a number of storms that have impacted the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and caused significant damage along its coast. The most well-known example of this in the United States is the SaffirSimpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS) which classifies hurricanes on a scale from 1 through 5 based on their one-minute maximum sustained wind speed (Schott et al 2012). These categories are often used sometimes inappropriately to infer potential property damage and flooding due to storm surge. Suggestions to modify the scale have included the addition of parameters such as storm size and forward speed (Done et al 2015; Hebert et al 2010)

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