Coastal Flooding

This week we explored the topic of coastal flooding. The two study areas were in Mantoloking, NJ, where we studied the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and it's destruction to the barrier island, and in Collier County, FL, where we studied the storm surge of two different DEMs and the affects on building structures in the path. 

For the Hurricane Sandy aftermath study, I took a pre-Sandy and a post-Sandy raster to subtract the difference and create a new raster that displayed the changes that occurred. Even before this occurred, you could tell that the post-Sandy raster had lost area. Upon further investigation, I was able to locate where erosion/building damage occurred and where sand accrection/building debris occurred.

For the Florida storm surge map, the LiDAR DEM proved to be the most accurate of the two models but the map study could have been more in depth. While I think it gives the reader an idea of areas of threat to a storm surge, so many factors go into areas that are threatened due to storm surge. The intensity of the storm and size of a storm will affect the storm surge. Also, the angle of approach matters. If the storm approaches parallel to the coast, there is less of a storm surge. The width and slope of the continental shelf also affects storm surge. A wide, gentle slope will have smaller waves but more of a storm surge while a steeper slope will have larger waves but less of a storm surge.