Tolman, H., Kurkowski, N., Van der Westhuysen, A., Moghimi, S., Abdolali, A., … Ma, Z. (2017). The US Coastal Act. In 1st International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards. National Oceanography Centre: Liverpool, UK.
The US Consumer Option for an Alternative System to Allocate Losses (COASTAL) Act requires an accurate hindcast modeling of flooding and wind caused by hurricanes to assist with recovery efforts. A significant portion of flooding due to hurricanes are caused by the interactions of windgenerated w... Show moreThe US Consumer Option for an Alternative System to Allocate Losses (COASTAL) Act requires an accurate hindcast modeling of flooding and wind caused by hurricanes to assist with recovery efforts. A significant portion of flooding due to hurricanes are caused by the interactions of windgenerated waves and the underlying surge, with radiation stresses from wave processes playing a significant role in the surge and the combined wave-current bottom boundary dynamics being important for both the wave and surge processes. Highly-sophisticated numerical models that separately simulate surge and wave processes have been developed and validated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over the last decade (the ADCIRC-based ESTOFS system for the surge modeling and WAVEWATCH III Global Multi-1 system for wave modeling). The two modeling systems will be dynamically coupled to exchange physical processes so as to obtain accurate estimates of total wave-surge induced inundation. For this purpose, NOAA is furthermore partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the development of a more efficient numerical solver for the WAVEWATCH III model that will make it possible to carry out wave simulations in very high resolution domains with extensive computational grids. This coupled modeling system, called the Named Storm Event Model (NSEM), will undergo validation of performance in representing total water level as a combination of storm surge, tides, and wave activity. Skill assessment techniques and criteria will be determined in order to be consistent with the 90% accuracy requirement of the COASTAL Act. Show less