Coastal Flood Risk Management Research Articles

Building Infrastructure Resilience in Coastal Flood Risk Management

AbstractThe alteration of a watershed’s hydrologic response due to urban development, population growth, global warming, and sea level rise have increased the frequency and intensity of floods. In ...

Big Data Approaches for coastal flood risk assessment and emergency response

Big Data Approaches (BDAs) refers to the combined use of historic datasets, incoming data streams, and the array of related technologies designed to shed new light on societal and environmental complexities through novel organizational, storage, and analytical capabilities. Despite widespread recognition of the commercial benefits of BDAs, application in the environmental domain is less well articulated. This represents a missed opportunity given that the dimensions used to characterize BDAs (volume, variety, velocity, and veracity) appear apt in describing the intractable challenges posed by global climate change. This paper employs coastal flood risk management as an illustrative case study to explore the potential applications in the environmental domain. Trends in global change including accelerating sea level rise, concentration of people and assets in low‐lying areas and deterioration of protective coastal ecosystems are expected to manifest locally as increased future flood risk. Two branches of coastal flood risk management are considered. First, coastal flood risk assessment, focusing on better characterization of hazard sources, facilitative pathways, and vulnerable receptors. Second, flood emergency response procedures, focusing on forecasting of flooding events, dissemination of warnings, and response monitoring. Critical commentary regarding technical, contextual, institutional, and behavioral barriers to the implementation of BDAs is offered throughout including a discussion of two fundamental difficulties associated with applying BDAs to coastal flood risk management: the role of BDAs in the broader flood system and the skill requirements for a generation of data scientists capable of implementing Big Data Approaches.This article is categorized under: Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice Climate, History, Society, Culture > Technological Aspects and Ideas

Strategic adaptation pathway planning to manage sea-level rise and changing coastal flood risk

Communities around the world are already committed to future sea-level rise. Long-term adaptation planning to manage associated coastal flood impacts is, however, challenged by uncertainty and contested stakeholder priorities. This study provides a proof of concept for a combined robust decision making (RDM) and dynamic adaptive policy pathways (DAPP) approach in coastal flood risk management. The concept uses model-based support and largely open source tools to help local government plan coastal adaptation pathways. Key steps in the method are illustrated using a hypothetical case study in Australia. The study shows how scenario discovery can provide multi-dimensional descriptions of adaptation tipping points which may inform the development of technical signpost indicators. Transient scenarios uncovered limitations in seemingly robust adaptation policies, where historical path dependencies may constrain the rate of adaptation and the extent to which future coastal flood impacts can be successfully managed. Lived values have the potential to offer insights about non-material social trade-offs that residents may need to accept for the benefit of reduced flood risk, and could form a basis for defining socially-oriented signpost indicators. However, the nuances and subjectivity of lived values means that ongoing engagement with residents is essential as part of a combined RDM and DAPP approach to preserve the communities’ way of life. The learnings from this hypothetical case study suggest that testing in a real world participatory setting could be valuable in further developing a combined RDM and DAPP approach to plan adaptation pathways and manage future coastal flood risk.

Describing adaptation tipping points in coastal flood risk management

Assessing changing coastal flood risk becomes increasingly uncertain across multi-decadal timeframes. This uncertainty is a fundamental complexity faced in vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning. Robust decision making (RDM) and dynamic adaptive policy pathways (DAPP) are two state-of-the-art decision support methods that are useful in such situations. In this study we use RDM to identify a small set of conditions that cause unacceptable impacts from coastal flooding, signifying that an adaptation tipping point is reached. Flexible adaptation pathways can then be designed using the DAPP framework. The methodology is illustrated using a case study in Australia and underpinned by a geographic information system model. The results suggest that conditions identified in scenario discovery direct the attention of decision-makers towards a small number of uncertainties most influential on the vulnerability of a community to changing flood patterns. This can facilitate targeted data collection and coastal monitoring activities when resources are scarce. Importantly, it can also be employed to illustrate more broadly how uncontrolled societal development, land use and historic building regulations might exacerbate flood impacts in low-lying urban areas. Notwithstanding the challenges that remain around simulation modelling and detection of environmental change, the results from our study suggest that RDM can be embedded within a DAPP framework to better plan for changing coastal flood risks.

Deep Uncertainties in Sea-Level Rise and Storm Surge Projections: Implications for Coastal Flood Risk Management.

Sea levels are rising in many areas around the world, posing risks to coastal communities and infrastructures. Strategies for managing these flood risks present decision challenges that require a combination of geophysical, economic, and infrastructure models. Previous studies have broken important new ground on the considerable tensions between the costs of upgrading infrastructure and the damages that could result from extreme flood events. However, many risk-based adaptation strategies remain silent on certain potentially important uncertainties, as well as the tradeoffs between competing objectives. Here, we implement and improve on a classic decision-analytical model (Van Dantzig 1956) to: (i) capture tradeoffs across conflicting stakeholder objectives, (ii) demonstrate the consequences of structural uncertainties in the sea-level rise and storm surge models, and (iii) identify the parametric uncertainties that most strongly influence each objective using global sensitivity analysis. We find that the flood adaptation model produces potentially myopic solutions when formulated using traditional mean-centric decision theory. Moving from a single-objective problem formulation to one with multiobjective tradeoffs dramatically expands the decision space, and highlights the need for compromise solutions to address stakeholder preferences. We find deep structural uncertainties that have large effects on the model outcome, with the storm surge parameters accounting for the greatest impacts. Global sensitivity analysis effectively identifies important parameter interactions that local methods overlook, and that could have critical implications for flood adaptation strategies.

UK–Ireland Planning Research Conference 2016

IntroductionThe UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference is an annual event that showcases cutting-edge planning research and provides an opportunity for academics and practitioners to explore current and future issues faced by the field. The 2016 conference was hosted by Cardiff University on 6 and 7 September to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the university's School of Geography and Planning. The theme of the conference was Planning for Future Generations - a theme chosen to reflect the key priorities of the pioneering Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The Act seeks to improve the social, cultural and economic well-being of Welsh citizens, and in doing so reinforces many of the principles upheld by the planning profession, including collaborative working, sustainability and community engagement.On the first day of the conference over 100 delegates from 40 institutions and organisations were welcomed to the historic Glamorgan Building for the opening reception. This was followed by the first plenary session held in the adjacent Bute Building. The delegates then chose to attend a series of parallel sessions, followed by a drinks reception and conference dinner at Principality Stadium. The second day followed a similar format to the first but commenced with a breakfast briefing session for PhD students and early-career researchers, sponsored by Taylor & Francis, which provided practical advice and guidance on how to get published in academic journals. The conference closed with a round table discussion and RTPI awards ceremony.Plenary sessionsThe conference was opened by Professor Paul Milbourne, head of the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, who introduced the conference theme and drew upon the criticality of current planning research for both academy and practice. Referencing Baroness Andrews's (2016) Foreword to English Planning in Crisis: 10 Steps to a Sustainable Future, Prof. Milbourne recognised the concern of planning 'not just for this generation, but for the long-term welfare of future generations'.Following this brief introduction, the first plenary session was presented by Matthew Quinn, director of environment and sustainable development in the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs of the Welsh Government. His presentation focused on the aims, objectives and challenges of the Well-Being of Future Generations Act. In particular he emphasised the difficulty of moving away from a 'single-issue' approach towards one that applies the principles of sustainable development across all areas and therefore encourages greater cross-sectoral collaboration. The Act seeks to deliver a more spatially oriented, holistic approach to dealing with issues related to the environment, society, culture and the economy, and in doing so seeks to change ways of working and thinking with respect to governance and stakeholder engagement. It is being implemented through a series of programmes and strategies, examples of which include a coastal flood-risk management scheme implemented in Colwyn Bay that also succeeded in bringing wider improvements to the public realm and tourism, and the Cynefin Programme, which explored new approaches to improving the well-being of deprived areas in Wales through the employment of 'place coordinators' to empower local people to improve their own quality of life.The second plenary presentation was delivered by Patsy Healey, Emeritus Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. One of the key messages of this presentation was the need to have an evaluative focus on 'well-being', or, as she referred to it, 'human flourishing'. Focusing on the role of planning in 'place governance', she discussed the potential of adopting a relational approach to place, which considers the connections between time and space, and conceptualises change within these 'webs' or 'assemblages' of relations. …

MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF COASTAL RISKS AT CLOUGHANINCHY (WEST COAST OF IRELAND)

The purpose of this paper is to present the multidisciplinary approach adopted to undertake a detailed coastal flood and erosion risk management investigation at Cloughaninchy beach (Ireland). The site was severely affected by a series of extreme events with extreme high tide combined with a severe sea swell and onshore winds resulting in severe damage due to flooding and wave action as well as substantial retreat of the dune system. Based on a comprehensive assessment and multidisciplinary studies an appropriate plan was subsequently developed to best manage the risks identified and to further assess the feasibility of the recommended management plan options and measures. The project is an example of how vital the integration of specialized disciplines (coastal engineering, hydraulic flood modelling and coastal morphology) is in the determination of the appropriate protection measures for coastal sites.

Utilizing a cellular automaton model to explore the influence of coastal flood adaptation strategies on Helsinki's urbanization patterns

A cellular automaton model (SLEUTH-3r) is utilized to explore the impacts of coastal flood risk management strategies on the urbanization parameters of Helsinki's metropolitan area, at a 50-m spatial resolution by 2040. The current urbanization trend is characterized by the consolidation of existing built-up land and loss of interspersed green spaces, whereas the most intense growth is forecast inside the coastal flood risk areas. This baseline is compared to strategies that test various responses of the planning system to real estate market forces and the spatial distribution of flood risks. A set of scenarios translates property price effects of flood risk information into various attraction-repulsion areas in and adjacent to the floodplain, while a second set explores varying degrees of restricting new growth in the flood risk zones without reference to the housing market.The simulations indicate that growth under all scenarios is distributed in a more fragmented manner relative to the baseline, which can be interpreted favorably regarding house prices and increased access to ecosystem services, although the indirect effects should also be considered. Demand for coastal flood-safe properties does not appear to automatically translate to refocusing of development toward those areas, unless planning interventions encourage this redistribution. The character of the planning system with respect to market drivers and the spatial distribution of risks and amenities is thus important. A mixture of market-based measures and moderate zoning interventions may be preferable for flood risk management and provide the necessary precision for adaptation strategies.

Cumulative hazard: The case of nuisance flooding

AbstractThe cumulative cost of frequent events (e.g., nuisance floods) over time may exceed the costs of the extreme but infrequent events for which societies typically prepare. Here we analyze the likelihood of exceedances above mean higher high water and the corresponding property value exposure for minor, major, and extreme coastal floods. Our results suggest that, in response to sea level rise, nuisance flooding (NF) could generate property value exposure comparable to, or larger than, extreme events. Determining whether (and when) low cost, nuisance incidents aggregate into high cost impacts and deciding when to invest in preventive measures are among the most difficult decisions for policymakers. It would be unfortunate if efforts to protect societies from extreme events (e.g., 0.01 annual probability) left them exposed to a cumulative hazard with enormous costs. We propose a Cumulative Hazard Index (CHI) as a tool for framing the future cumulative impact of low cost incidents relative to infrequent extreme events. CHI suggests that in New York, NY, Washington, DC, Miami, FL, San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA, a careful consideration of socioeconomic impacts of NF for prioritization is crucial for sustainable coastal flood risk management.

Coastal-flood risk management in central Algarve: Vulnerability and flood risk indices (South Portugal)

This paper presents an analysis of the vulnerability (AVI Index) and hazard of flooding by sea level rise (FRI Index) in the central Algarve (South Portugal), between the cities of Portimão and Tavira, which is an area of intense urban impact and fast growing tourism. The vulnerability index was calculated using the following parametric thematic maps: lithology, geomorphology, slopes, elevations, distances, bathymetry, variations of the coastline, wave height and activity, variations of sea level and tidal range. The AVI Index was validated by the results obtained from the analysis of the risk of flooding from the FHI Index applied to several time horizons (X0-present, X1-100 years, X2-500 years, X3-1000year, X4-Storm and X5-Tsunami). Application of GIS and remote sensing techniques, viz. spatial analysis, interpolation processes and geostatistical analysis, permitted a regional forecasting model of change in the mean sea level and the ensuing consequences to be established. Analysis of the obtained results shows an increase in potential flood zones in populous coastal tourist areas with a high risk of exposure and a significant spatial extent of 8.84km2 only in Faro municipality. The assessment and delineation of other endangered sectors could contribute to designing appropriate long- term management policies for the coastal of Central Algarve.

Integrated Coastal Flood Risk Management as a Means to Build Resilient Communities

There is a clear trend in the increase of damages and loss of lives and livelihoods in coastal areas as a result of rapid increase in coastal populations, and overall socio-economic development in coastal regions resulting in an increase in vulnerability of populations exposed to coastal floods and exposed infrastructure. Coastal flooding as a result of i.e. storm surges are difficult to predict and cannot be prevented, however there are means to apply integrated flood risk management approaches aiming to reduce the impact of coastal floods. A measure of the effectiveness of such approaches is the awareness and response of coastal communities to coastal flood risks. The paper introduces best practices and methods to lower coastal flood risk at the level of provinces, districts and the community level. This includes advances in coastal flood forecasting and early warning practices, improvement of institutional preparedness and integrated flood management practices as well as measures at the community level aiming to strengthen their resilience to coastal floods. The paper provides a showcase for the historical development and achievements to pave ways for the eventual implementation of a pilot project on integrated flood risk management in coastal areas in central Viet Nam.

Adaptive and risk-based approaches to climate change and the management of uncertainty and institutional risk: The case of future flooding in England

This paper focuses on how scientific uncertainties about future peak flood flows and sea level rises are accounted for in long term strategic planning processes to adapt inland and coastal flood risk management in England to climate change. Combining key informant interviews (n=18) with documentary analysis, it explores the institutional tensions between adaptive management approaches emphasising openness to uncertainty and to alternative policy options on the one hand and risk-based ones that close them down by transforming uncertainties into calculable risks whose management can be rationalized through cost-benefit analysis and nationally consistent, risk-based priority setting on the other hand. These alternative approaches to managing uncertainty about the first-order risks to society from future flooding are shaped by institutional concerns with managing the second-order, ‘institutional’ risks of criticism and blame arising from accountability for discharging those first-order risk management responsibilities. In the case of river flooding the poorly understood impacts of future climate change were represented with a simplistic adjustment to peak flow estimates, which proved robust in overcoming institutional resistance to making precautionary allowances for climate change in risk-based flood management, at least in part because its scientific limitations were acknowledged only partially. By contrast in the case of coastal flood risk management, greater scientific confidence led to successively more elaborate guidance on how to represent the science, which in turn led to inconsistency in implementation and increased the institutional risks involved in taking the uncertain effects of future sea level rise into account in adaptation planning and flood risk management. Comparative analysis of these two cases then informs some wider reflections about the tensions between adaptive and risk-based approaches, the role of institutional risk in climate change adaptation, and the importance of such institutional dynamics in shaping the framing uncertainties and policy responses to scientific knowledge about them.

Experiments and Numerical Simulations of Dike Erosion due to a Wave Impact

Dike erosion is a crucial issue in coastal and fluvial flood risk management. These defense structures appear vulnerable to extreme hydrological events, whose potential occurrence risk seems to be recently increased due to climate change. Their design and reinforcement is, however, a complex task, and although numerical models are very powerful nowadays, real processes cannot be accurately predicted; therefore, physical models constitute a useful tool to investigate different features under controlled conditions. This paper presents some laboratory experimental results of erosion of a sand dike produced by the impact of a dam break wave. Experiments have been conducted in the Water Engineering Laboratory at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy, in a rectangular channel: here, the sudden opening of a gate forming the reservoir generates the wave impacting the dike, made in turn of two different, almost uniform sands. The physical evidence proves that the erosion process is strongly unsteady and significantly different from a gradual overtopping and highlights the importance of apparent cohesion for the fine sand dike. The experimental results have also been compared against the ones obtained through the numerical integration of a two-phase model, which shows the reasonable predictive capability of the temporal free surface and dike profile evolution.

Characterizing the hydraulic interactions of hurricane storm surge and rainfall–runoff for the Houston–Galveston region

Planning of traditional coastal flood risk management strategies are largely predicated on storm surge protection against extreme hurricanes, i.e. storm surge. However, (1) hurricane storm surge and (2) hurricane rainfall–runoff are not mutually exclusive flood hazards. Little research has emphasized the need for quantifying and characterizing the joint hydraulic processes between hurricane storm surge and rainfall–runoff during real events for enhancing effective flood risk mitigation. In this regard, an improved hydrological and hydrodynamic modeling framework has been developed for the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) and Galveston Bay to serve as a quantitative testbed for evaluating coupled hurricane storm surge and rainfall–runoff. Modularity within the modeling framework allows for landfall shifting of historical hurricane tracks, wind fields, and corresponding rainfall patterns to serve as numerical model inputs, as well as providing an expanded dataset of storm events. Distributed hydrologic and unsteady hydraulic analyses of upstream rainfall–runoff and storm surge are conducted for hurricanes Katrina (2005), Ike (2008), and Isaac (2012) under three synthetically shifted landfall locations near the HSC and Galveston Bay regions. For the modeled scenarios, results show that peak flows from storm surge easily dominate those of rainfall–runoff, but that rainfall–runoff can constitute more than half of the total flood volume draining towards the HSC. Most modeled scenarios reveal less than 24h of separation between peak surge and peak rainfall–runoff. In the same way that storm surge is sensitive to hurricane landfall location and angle of approach, so are spatial rainfall distributions and associated inland runoff processes, due to wide topological variations in coastal watershed boundaries. Analysis of coastal flood mitigation is extended with the dynamic modeling of a proposed storm surge barrier system at the HSC, with its performance quantified under the given hurricanes. The surge barrier system is demonstrated to be hydraulically feasible for all scenarios, with maximum water surface elevation reductions ranging between 0.63m and 3.28m. However, accurate storm surge and riverine flood forecasting methods will be critical for achieving optimal gate and barrier operations.

Geometric properties of anthropogenic flood control berms on southern California beaches

Coastal flood risk from coincident high tides and energetic waves is concentrated around low-lying urban areas. Municipalities construct temporary sand berms (also known as sacrificial dunes) to manage potential flooding, however the relationships between berm geometry (e.g., height, width and length) and performance are not understood. Concomitant pressures of sea level rise and urbanization will increase active beach berming. Effective future coastal flood risk management will depend upon optimizing berm efficacy relative to geometry, placement, and water levels. Here, 34 individual berms at seven southern California locations are characterized using 18 LiDAR datasets spanning nearly a decade. Three berm classifications emerged based on deployment duration: event, seasonal and persistent. Event berms, deployed to manage specific storms or high water events, are triangular in cross-section, relatively low volume (∼4 m3/m) and low crest elevation (∼5 m NAVD88). Seasonal berms are larger, volumes vary from 6 to 28 m3/m, and average crest elevations are between 5.3 and 6.4 m. A persistent berm, captured in all LiDAR data for that area, is the largest (48 m3/m), longest (1.2 km), and highest mean crest elevation (7 m NAVD88) of all study berms. Total water levels, estimated using observed tides and a regional wave model coupled with an empirical runup formula, suggest that overtopping is rare. Currently, event berms are vulnerable to wave attack only a few hours per year. However, even with modest sea level rise (∼25 cm) or El Niño conditions, exposure increases significantly, and substantial nourishments may be required to maintain current flood protection levels.

Development of a Data Warehouse for Riverine and Coastal Flood Risk Management

Abstract. In New Brunswick flooding occurs typically during the spring freshet, though, in recent years, midwinter thaws have led to flooding in January or February. Municipalities are therefore facing a pressing need to perform risk assessments in order to identify communities at risk of flooding. In addition to the identification of communities at risk, quantitative measures of potential structural damage and societal losses are necessary for these identified communities. Furthermore, tools which allow for analysis and processing of possible mitigation plans are needed. Natural Resources Canada is in the process of adapting Hazus-MH to respond to the need for risk management. This requires extensive data from a variety of municipal, provincial, and national agencies in order to provide valid estimates. The aim is to establish a data warehouse to store relevant flood prediction data which may be accessed thru Hazus. Additionally, this data warehouse will contain tools for On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) and knowledge discovery to quantitatively determine areas at risk and discover unexpected dependencies between datasets. The third application of the data warehouse is to provide data for online visualization capabilities: web-based thematic maps of Hazus results, historical flood visualizations, and mitigation tools; thus making flood hazard information and tools more accessible to emergency responders, planners, and residents. This paper represents the first step of the process: locating and collecting the appropriate datasets.

What has changed in France in coastal flood risk management after Xynthia storm

Abstract What has changed in France in coastal flood risk management after Xynthia storm. One year after the Xynthia storm surge, which struck the Vendée and the Charente-Maritime counties of the French Atlantic Coast in the night of 27/28 February 2010, French authorities implemented a national plan for mitigation and management of the fl ash submersions (MEDDTL 2011). In this paper authors analyse partial results of this plan after almost three years of its effectiveness in the perspective of Xynthia catastrophic event, but also taking into account other dramatic coastal submersions, which occured during winter 2014 in the same region.

Nearshore and foreshore influence on overwash of a barrier island

Matias, A., Carrasco, A.R., Loureiro, C., Almeida, S., Ferreira, Ó., 2014. Nearshore and foreshore influence on overwash of a barrier island. In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 675–680, ISSN 0749-0208.Accurate prediction of the occurrence and morphological consequences of overwash are important for coastal flood risk assessment and management. A number of morphological and oceanographic factors controlling overwash have been identified by several authors, including nearshore bathymetry. This work intends to identify alongshore variations in storm impact and evaluate the role of sub-aerial and submerged morphological variations in overwash occurrence. For this study, 24 cross-shore topo-bathymetric profiles were set on Barreta Island (Ria Formosa barrier island system, Portugal), extending from the nearshore to the lagoon level on the island backbarrier. Pre- and post-overwash surveys were made between August 2012 and April 2013. Offshore wave characteristics were obtained during overwash events including offshore significant wave height (Hs), peak period and wave direction. Wave propagation and wave parameters at breaking were obtained from SWAN model simulations. During the study period, overwash occurred both under storm conditions (e.g., Hs = 3.8 m) and non-storm conditions (e.g., Hs = 0.8 m), the latter coincident with spring high-tide. Overwash water intrusion distance across the barrier varied alongshore between 0 m (no overwash) and 40 m (reaching lagoon waters). Beach morphology was spatially variable, and changeable from one overwash episode to the next. Important morphological variations of the barrier include modification of barrier crest elevation, beach slope, and presence of swash bars in the vicinity of Ancão Inlet. Predictions of overwash occurrence were made by means of the computation of the Overwash Potential (OP), defined as the difference between the wave runup and the barrier elevation. Several runup equations were tested, and the results of obtained OP were compared to the observations of actual overwash occurrence to determine the most reliable approach. The selected predictor provided an accuracy of 88% for the identification of the locations where overwash processes occurred along the barrier. The predictions were variable alongshore due to variations in breaking waves and beach slope, which in turn are related to the existence of nearshore bars, associated with the presence of the updrift Ancão Inlet. This study proves that nearshore and foreshore morphologies have a major impact on the longshore variation of overwash distribution.

Research Articles: Coastal Flood-Risk Management Practice in Tai O, a Town in Hong Kong

Coastal megadeltas in Asia have emerged rapidly; their megacities are particularly stressed by urbanization and rapid population growth. In the Pearl River Delta, towns in coastal megacities, such ...

A storm surge inundation model of the northern Bay of Bengal using publicly available data

AbstractA computationally inexpensive inundation model has been developed from freely available data sources for the northern Bay of Bengal region to estimate flood risk from storm surges. This is the first time Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) terrain data have been used in a dynamic coastal inundation model. To reduce SRTM noise, and the impact of vegetation artefacts on the ground elevation, the SRTM data were up‐scaled from their native 90 m resolution to 900 m. A sub‐grid routine allowed estuary channels with widths less than this resolution to be simulated efficiently, and allowed six major river flows to be represented. The inundation model was forced with an IIT‐D model hindcast of the 2007 cyclone Sidr flood event, using parameters from two cyclone databases (IBTrACs and UNISYS). Validation showed inundation prediction accuracy with a root mean squared error (RMSE) on predicted water level of ∼ 2 m, which was of the same order of magnitude as the forcing water‐level uncertainties. Therefore, SRTM and other publicly available data can be useful for coastal flood risk management in data‐poor regions, although the associated uncertainty needs to be expressed to end users. Better SRTM processing techniques may improve inundation model performance, and future work should also seek to improve storm tide uncertainties in this region. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society