Modeling wave effects on storm surge and coastal inundation

Abstract

We present a parametric study of surface wave effects on storm surge and coastal inundation. Hurricane wind forcing terms, atmosphere pressure gradient terms, and radiation open boundary conditions are implemented into an existing quasi-3D nearshore model, NearCoM-TVD, which uses a shock-capturing TVD scheme and can better simulate the wetting-drying process during inundation than a conventional finite difference model. Systematic numerical experiments are carried out in an idealized continental shelf-beach-land system to identify the role of waves in modeling storm surge and inundation under different storm characteristics. Four storm parameters, including storm intensity, storm size, translation speed and incident angle are investigated. Modeling results reveal that the presence of waves can increase the maximum storm surge heights significantly through wave setup, and the contribution of waves varies considerably depending on the storm characteristics. In addition to direct wave forcing, the wave-enhanced bottom stress in the surfzone also promotes higher wave setup and hence higher surge heights. Waves also have a major influence on the maximum inland inundation distance, however, we find that waves do not always favor more inundation as expected. For storms traveling at very slow translation speeds or nearly parallel to the coast, waves surprisingly exert a negative effect on the maximum inundation distance. We argue that wave-enhanced bottom stress combined with longer forcing duration in such storms counteract the positive effect of wave setup, and thus less inundation is predicted in wave-current coupled simulations. Our results highlight the necessity of fully-incorporating wave effects in storm surge and inundation modeling.