Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Coastal inundation is an increasing threat for many nearshore regions worldwide, and has significantly increased in the last years also due to sea-level rise and increased impact of extreme events, like sea storms. Many countries and regions have recently invested to overcome such problems, which commonly lead to structure damages, beach erosion and many other consequences. A series of regulations and legislative approaches has also been proposed and/or applied, with the aim to mitigate such negative effects. Numerical modeling is an important tool for coastal inundation prediction, being a valuable support for management issues to mitigate the inundation risk or suggest resilient solutions. The present work illustrates a novel approach, based on a numerical model chain that exploits a tide-surge-wave operational modeling system (Kassandra), a phase-averaged model (ROMS-SWAN) for the wave propagation towards the shore, and a phase-resolving solver (NSWE) for the prediction of runup and coastal inundation. Such a chain is applied to the bay of Alghero (Sardinia, Italy), where the results of the mentioned chain are compared to those obtained using, in place of the phase-averaged model, an analytical model for the wave propagation. Results confirm that both chain approaches provide comparable inundations, though the use of the analytical, more approximate (e.g., less accurate and reliable description of wave breaking dissipation), model suggests more severe conditions and larger flooded areas. The present contribution provides a methodological approach for an accurate and reliable estimate of coastal flooding.