Application of STORMTOOLS Coastal Environmental Risk Index (CERI) to Inform State and Local Planning and Decision Making along the Southern RI Shoreline

STORMTOOLS coastal environmental risk index (CERI) was applied to communities located along the southern coast of Rhode Island (RI) to determine the risk to structures located in the flood plain. CERI uses estimates of the base flood elevation (BFE), explicitly including the effects of sea level rise (SLR); details on the structure types, from the E911 emergency data base/parcel data, and associated first floor elevation (FFE); and damage curves from the US Army Corp of Engineers North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS) to determine the damages to structures for the study area. Surge levels and associated offshore waves used to determine BFEs were obtained from the NACCS hydrodynamic and wave model predictions. The impacts of sea level rise and coastal erosion on flooding were modeled using XBeach and STWAVE and validated by observations at selected locations along the coastline. CERI estimated the structural damage to each structure in the coastal flood plain for 100 yr flooding with SLR ranging from 0 to 10 ft. The number of structures at risk was estimated to increase approximate linearly from 3700 for no SLR to about 8000 for 10 ft SLR, with about equal percentages for each of the four coastal communities (Narragansett, South Kingstown, Charlestown, and Westerly, Rhode Island (RI)). The majority of the structures in the flood plain are single/story residences without (41%) and with (46%) basements (total 87%; structures with basements are the most vulnerable). Less vulnerable are structures elevated on piles with 8.8% of the total. The remaining are commercial structures principally located either in the Port of Galilee and or Watch Hill. The analysis showed that about 20% of the structures in the 100 yr flood plain are estimated to be damaged at 50% or greater. This increases to 55% of structures as SLR rises to 5 ft. At higher SLR values the percent damaged at 50% or greater slowly declines to 45% at 10 ft SLR. This behavior is a result of the number of homes below MSL increasing dramatically as SLR values moves higher than 5 ft and thus being removed from the structures damaged pool. Generalized CERI risk maps have developed to allow the managers to determine the broad risk of siting structures at any location in their communities. CERI has recently become available as a mobile phone App, facilitating the ability of state and local decision makers and the public to determine the risk of locating a selected building type at any location in their communities

An Adaptive Framework for Selecting Environmental Monitoring Protocols to Support Ocean Renewable Energy Development

Offshore renewable energy developments (OREDs) are projected to become common in the United States over the next two decades. There are both a need and an opportunity to guide efforts to identify and track impacts to the marine ecosystem resulting from these installations. A monitoring framework and standardized protocols that can be applied to multiple types of ORED would streamline scientific study, management, and permitting at these sites. We propose an adaptive and reactive framework based on indicators of the likely changes to the marine ecosystem due to ORED. We developed decision trees to identify suites of impacts at two scales (demonstration and commercial) depending on energy (wind, tidal, and wave), structure (e.g., turbine), and foundation type (e.g., monopile). Impacts were categorized by ecosystem component (benthic habitat and resources, fish and fisheries, avian species, marine mammals, and sea turtles) and monitoring objectives were developed for each. We present a case study at a commercial-scale wind farm and develop a monitoring plan for this development that addresses both local and national environmental concerns. In addition, framework has provided a starting point for identifying global research needs and objectives for understanding of the potential effects of ORED on the marine environment

Application of STORMTOOLS Coastal Environmental Risk Index (CERI) to Inform State and Local Planning and Decision Making along the Southern RI Shoreline

STORMTOOLS coastal environmental risk index (CERI) was applied to communities located along the southern coast of Rhode Island (RI) to determine the risk to structures located in the flood plain. CERI uses estimates of the base flood elevation (BFE), explicitly including the effects of sea level rise (SLR); details on the structure types, from the E911 emergency data base/parcel data, and associated first floor elevation (FFE); and damage curves from the US Army Corp of Engineers North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS) to determine the damages to structures for the study area. Surge levels and associated offshore waves used to determine BFEs were obtained from the NACCS hydrodynamic and wave model predictions. The impacts of sea level rise and coastal erosion on flooding were modeled using XBeach and STWAVE and validated by observations at selected locations along the coastline. CERI estimated the structural damage to each structure in the coastal flood plain for 100 yr flooding with SLR ranging from 0 to 10 ft. The number of structures at risk was estimated to increase approximate linearly from 3700 for no SLR to about 8000 for 10 ft SLR, with about equal percentages for each of the four coastal communities (Narragansett, South Kingstown, Charlestown, and Westerly, Rhode Island (RI)). The majority of the structures in the flood plain are single/story residences without (41%) and with (46%) basements (total 87%; structures with basements are the most vulnerable). Less vulnerable are structures elevated on piles with 8.8% of the total. The remaining are commercial structures principally located either in the Port of Galilee and or Watch Hill. The analysis showed that about 20% of the structures in the 100 yr flood plain are estimated to be damaged at 50% or greater. This increases to 55% of structures as SLR rises to 5 ft. At higher SLR values the percent damaged at 50% or greater slowly declines to 45% at 10 ft SLR. This behavior is a result of the number of homes below MSL increasing dramatically as SLR values moves higher than 5 ft and thus being removed from the structures damaged pool. Generalized CERI risk maps have developed to allow the managers to determine the broad risk of siting structures at any location in their communities. CERI has recently become available as a mobile phone App, facilitating the ability of state and local decision makers and the public to determine the risk of locating a selected building type at any location in their communities

State of the art review and future directions in oil spill modeling

A review of the state of the art in oil spill modeling, focused on the period from 2000 to present is provided. The review begins with an overview of the current structure of spill models and some lessons learned from model development and application and then provides guiding principles that govern the development of the current generation of spill models. A review of the basic structure of spill models, and new developments in specific transport and fate processes; including surface and subsurface transport, spreading, evaporation, dissolution, entrainment and oil droplet size distributions, emulsification, degradation, and sediment oil interaction are presented. The paper concludes with thoughts on future directions in the field with a primary focus on advancements in handling interactions between Lagrangian elements

Modeling of Circulation and Dispersion in Coastal Lagoons

A review of strategies to model the circulation and pollutant transport in inletcoastal lagoon systems is presented. Simplified procedures based on correlation analysis, analytic solutions to the ordinary linearized differential equation describing the system, and a numerical model that solves the governing equation for multi-inlet, multi-basin systems are described. The models predict the inlet flow characteristics, basin surface elevation response, and pollutant concentrations for cases where the basin responds in a simple pumping or Helmholtz mode. To describe circulation and pollutant movement when the pumping mode assumption is inappropriate two-dimensional, vertically-averaged models based either on finite element or finite difference solution methodologies are presented. This approach is also employed when the specific interest is circulation or pollutant transport within the basin. A unique hybrid model, coupling a one dimensional inlet model with a two-dimensional, vertically-averaged model for the basin, is described. The use of boundary fitted coordinate models is explored exploiting their ability to accurately describe areas with disparate spatial scales. A procedure is presented to assist in model selection for inlet-lagoon systems. To demonstrate model application for management decision making a simplified approach is applied to predict the impacts of inlet channel modification on the circulation, flushing dynamics, and salinity in the Charlestown, R.I. pond system. © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V

Corrigendum to “State of the art review and future directions in oil spill modeling” [Mar. Pollut. Bull. 115 (1–2) (2017) 7–19](S0025326X17300012)(10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.001)

To clarify the sentence: “Following the work of Carlson et al. (2009), Spaulding et al. (2016a, 2016b) have developed a methodology to estimate the upper bound for dispersion coefficients used in a spill model.” The author has requested the following revision: “Following the work of Carlson et al. (2010), Spaulding et al. (2016a) have implemented their methodology to estimate the upper bound for dispersion coefficients used in a spill model.” The reference to the work of Carlson et al. should be corrected to: Carlson, D.F., Fredj, E., Gildor, H. and Rom-Kedar, V., 2010. Deducing an upper bound to the horizontal eddy diffusivity using a stochastic Lagrangian model. Environmental fluid mechanics, 10(5), pp.499–520. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10652-010-9181-0 The author would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused

A study of the effects of grid non-orthogonality on the solution of shallow water equations in boundary-fitted coordinate systems

In the present study, an existing two-dimensional boundary-fitted model [J. Hydraul. Eng.-ASCE 122 (9) (1996) 512] is used to study the effect of grid non-orthogonality on the solution of shallow water equations using boundary-fitted grids. The linearized two-dimensional shallow water equations are expressed in terms of the grid angle and aspect ratio. The truncation errors of the finite difference approximations used in the solution of the governing equations are shown to be dependent on the grid angle and the aspect ratio. The coefficient of the truncation error was shown to increase, with the decrease in the grid angle. The RMS errors in model predicted surface elevations and velocities for the case of seiching in a rectangular basin are found to increase gradually, as the grid resolution decreases from 174 to 80 gridpoints per wavelength or as the grid angle decreases from 90° to 50° and increases rather sharply for a grid angle of 30° at grid resolutions less than 80 gridpoints per wavelength. The model predicted surface elevations for the case of tidal forcing in a rectangular basin are found to be insensitive to the grid angle at grid resolutions higher than 600 gridpoints per wavelength. The RMS error in the model predicted velocities is found to increase gradually as the grid angle decreases from 90° to 30° or as the grid resolution decreases from 1400 gridpoints per wavelength to 400 gridpoints per wavelength and increases sharply as the grid resolution decreases from 400 to 150 gridpoints per wavelength. Two-dimensional depth averaged hydrodynamic modeling of tidal circulation in Narragansett Bay, using three different boundary-fitted grids showed that the model predicted surface elevations are insensitive to the grid angle at grid resolutions as low as 200 gridpoints per wavelength. However, the model predicted velocities were found to increase as the grid resolution decreases from 600 to 200 gridpoints per wavelength. We conclude from this study that grid angle and grid resolution affects the accuracy of the model predicted currents and the numerical dispersion increases with the decrease in grid angle or grid resolution and these are in agreement with that reached by Sankaranarayanan and Spaulding [Dispersion and Stability Analyses of Shallow Water Equations in Boundary-fitted Coordinates, Department of Ocean Engineering, University of Rhode Island, 2001, p. 33] through a Fourier analysis of the discretized equations in boundary-fitted coordinates. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

A three-dimensional numerical model of particulate transport for coastal waters

A Lagrangian marker particle in Eulerian finite difference cell solution to the three-dimensional incompressible mass transport equation was developed for predicting particulate transport in coastal and estuarine waters. Special features of the solution procedure include a finite difference grid network which translates horizontally and vertically with the mean particle motion and expands with the dispersive growth of the marker particle cloud. The cartesian vertical coordinate of the three-dimensional mass transport equation has been transformed, using instantaneous water column depth to allow adaptation to flow situations with a temporally and spatially varying bottom topography and free surface. Results from this model for turbulent diffusion and advection of a uniform plug flow of sediment in an unbounded uniform flow field with various sediment settling velocities were in excellent agreement with the corresponding analytic solutions. Using current information from a two-dimensional vertically averaged hydrodynamic\u27s model, the model was utilized to predict the long term diffusion and advection of dilute neutrally and negatively buoyant suspended sediment clouds resulting from a hypothetical instantaneous release of dredge spoil waste at Brown\u27s Ledge in Rhode Island Sound. © 1984

Application of SARMAP to estimate probable search area for objects lost at sea

The Search and Rescue Mapping and Analysis Program (SARMAP), a personal computer based search and rescue model with a Windows-based user interface, was employed to predict the probable search area for two accidents: a Rhode Island (RI) couple who were thought to have committed suicide by jumping from the Peu Bridge across the lower East Passage, Narragansett Bay in November 1993 and a shipping container lost at sea from the KAMINA in April 1994 off the coast of Valparaiso, Chile. In the case of the RI couple, simulations were performed assuming that the bodies were negatively, neutrally, and positively buoyant. The most probable search areas were identified for each case and provided to local and state police. The police search, immediately after the incident, included side scan sonar surveys, trawling and diving operations. But, it was unsuccessful in locating either body. In late August 1994, one of the couple\u27s skulls was collected in a fishing trawl - it was found north of the bridge and positively identified. Leg and hip bones were also found several hundred meters north of the bridge. The SARMAP predicted search area for the negatively and neutrally buoyant cases were consistent with retrieval of skeletal parts. In the case of the accident off Chile, a simulation was performed for the movement of a half submerged shipping container lost at sea from the vessel KAMINA. The model correctly predicted the container path and its location over a period of 18 hours when tracking data were available. The two examples for substantially different problems, illustrate SARMAP\u27s ability to provide useful data to assist in search and rescue operations