Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Impacts Of Hurricane Storm Surge On Infrastructure Vulnerability For An Evolving Coastal Landscape, Katherine A. Anarde, Sabarethinam Kameshwar, John N. Irza, Jeffrey A. Nittrouer, Jorge Lorenzo Trueba, Jamie E. Padgett, Antonia Sebastian, Philip B. Bedient

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Predicting coastal infrastructure reliability during hurricane events is important for risk-based design and disaster planning, including delineating viable emergency response routes. Previous research has focused on either infrastructure vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding, or the impact of changing sea level and landforms on surge dynamics. This paper represents a multidisciplinary effort to provide an integrative model of the combined impacts of sea-level rise, landscape changes, and coastal flooding on the vulnerability of highway bridges - the only access points between barrier islands and mainland communities - during extreme storms. Coastal flooding is forward modeled for static projections of …