Coastal Water Level Variability, Inundation, and Impacts on Nearshore Infrastructure

Abstract:

Coastal water level variability poses threats to nearshore infrastructure and public safety in both inland lakeside and marine coastal communities. Inundation along oceanic coasts is often caused by ocean wind and weather formations that can lead to dangerous hurricane weather events falling on community shorelines. In the inland Laurentian Great Lakes, however, sustained wind patterns can also cause large coastal flooding events. Seiche events, like those that typically form dangerous standing waves across Laurentian Great Lakes, are an example of an inland flooding hazard that can arise from atmospheric phenomena. As with marine coastal flooding events, inland seiche events have caused loss of life and destruction to natural and built infrastructure in the nearshore environment. However, in inland lakes, these events often occur in the context of decadal water surface level variability. Therefore, as the Great Lakes continue to experience a period of increasing water levels due to trends in the basin’s weather and hydrology, coastal communities have become increasingly vulnerable to hazardous flooding. To better understand the impacts of increasingly variable water levels on infrastructure along the coast of Great Lakes water bodies, we have developed new methods to visualize possible future flooding scenarios in coastal communities using remotely sensed LiDAR data, publically available elevation datasets, and geospatial tools in ArcGIS. This work is intended to better inform local and state resource managers of the potential impacts that large scale lake flooding events may have on coastal communities’ public health and safety.