Modeling and Planning for Storm Surge (Panel)
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Date
2013-05-22
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Authors
Losego, Jessica
Dorman, John
Birch, Traci
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Abstract
Jessica Losego discussed the CERA (Coastal Emergency Risk Assessment)-Atlantic portal that is
part of the DHS Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence housed at UNC Chapel Hill. She showed
examples of the five-day forecasts that are generated based on ADCIRC coastal circulation and
storm surge models that produce deterministic wave and surge forecasts. The layers of the map
include storm track, water height, waves, wind speed and gauge stations located on a Google
map. The format allows a user to click on any part of the map and find a legend with corresponding colors that indicate inundation and how a particular area will be affected. While this website
has been available for several years, recent improvements have been made in response to feedback from emergency managers. They found that emergency managers need information 72
hours before landfall and they need a best guess for decision-making. The onset of tropical force
wind is important to emergency managers and although there are many ways to get the hurricane
track, it is hard to get information about river flooding and connect that to surge. New changes include color scale changes and more intuitive page design...