The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy inflicted heavy damage in New York City and the New Jersey coast as the second costliest storm in history. A large-scale, unstructured grid storm tide model, Semi-implicit Eulerian Lagrangian Finite Element (SELFE), was used to hindcast water level variation during Hurricane Sandy in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2014-03-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/2/1/226 |
| _version_ | 1818727682076049408 |
|---|---|
| author | Harry V. Wang Jon Derek Loftis Zhuo Liu David Forrest Joseph Zhang |
| author_facet | Harry V. Wang Jon Derek Loftis Zhuo Liu David Forrest Joseph Zhang |
| author_sort | Harry V. Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hurricane Sandy inflicted heavy damage in New York City and the New Jersey coast as the second costliest storm in history. A large-scale, unstructured grid storm tide model, Semi-implicit Eulerian Lagrangian Finite Element (SELFE), was used to hindcast water level variation during Hurricane Sandy in the mid-Atlantic portion of the U.S. East Coast. The model was forced by eight tidal constituents at the model’s open boundary, 1500 km away from the coast, and the wind and pressure fields from atmospheric model Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) provided by Weatherflow Inc. The comparisons of the modeled storm tide with the NOAA gauge stations from Montauk, NY, Long Island Sound, encompassing New York Harbor, Atlantic City, NJ, to Duck, NC, were in good agreement, with an overall root mean square error and relative error in the order of 15–20 cm and 5%–7%, respectively. Furthermore, using large-scale model outputs as the boundary conditions, a separate sub-grid model that incorporates LIDAR data for the major portion of the New York City was also set up to investigate the detailed inundation process. The model results compared favorably with USGS’ Hurricane Sandy Mapper database in terms of its timing, local inundation area, and the depth of the flooding water. The street-level inundation with water bypassing the city building was created and the maximum extent of horizontal inundation was calculated, which was within 30 m of the data-derived estimate by USGS. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T22:17:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5229c10d58da44b7a2d8f63da21c6978 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1312 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T22:17:58Z |
| publishDate | 2014-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
| spelling | doaj.art-5229c10d58da44b7a2d8f63da21c69782022-12-21T21:30:34ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122014-03-012122624610.3390/jmse2010226jmse2010226The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane SandyHarry V. Wang0Jon Derek Loftis1Zhuo Liu2David Forrest3Joseph Zhang4Department of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 1375, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USADepartment of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 1375, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USADepartment of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 1375, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USADepartment of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 1375, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USACenter for Coastal Resource Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 1375, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USAHurricane Sandy inflicted heavy damage in New York City and the New Jersey coast as the second costliest storm in history. A large-scale, unstructured grid storm tide model, Semi-implicit Eulerian Lagrangian Finite Element (SELFE), was used to hindcast water level variation during Hurricane Sandy in the mid-Atlantic portion of the U.S. East Coast. The model was forced by eight tidal constituents at the model’s open boundary, 1500 km away from the coast, and the wind and pressure fields from atmospheric model Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) provided by Weatherflow Inc. The comparisons of the modeled storm tide with the NOAA gauge stations from Montauk, NY, Long Island Sound, encompassing New York Harbor, Atlantic City, NJ, to Duck, NC, were in good agreement, with an overall root mean square error and relative error in the order of 15–20 cm and 5%–7%, respectively. Furthermore, using large-scale model outputs as the boundary conditions, a separate sub-grid model that incorporates LIDAR data for the major portion of the New York City was also set up to investigate the detailed inundation process. The model results compared favorably with USGS’ Hurricane Sandy Mapper database in terms of its timing, local inundation area, and the depth of the flooding water. The street-level inundation with water bypassing the city building was created and the maximum extent of horizontal inundation was calculated, which was within 30 m of the data-derived estimate by USGS.http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/2/1/226Hurricane Sandystorm surgeinundationsub-grid modeling |
| spellingShingle | Harry V. Wang Jon Derek Loftis Zhuo Liu David Forrest Joseph Zhang The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy Journal of Marine Science and Engineering Hurricane Sandy storm surge inundation sub-grid modeling |
| title | The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy |
| title_full | The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy |
| title_fullStr | The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy |
| title_short | The Storm Surge and Sub-Grid Inundation Modeling in New York City during Hurricane Sandy |
| title_sort | storm surge and sub grid inundation modeling in new york city during hurricane sandy |
| topic | Hurricane Sandy storm surge inundation sub-grid modeling |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/2/1/226 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT harryvwang thestormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT jonderekloftis thestormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT zhuoliu thestormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT davidforrest thestormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT josephzhang thestormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT harryvwang stormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT jonderekloftis stormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT zhuoliu stormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT davidforrest stormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy AT josephzhang stormsurgeandsubgridinundationmodelinginnewyorkcityduringhurricanesandy |