Coastal inundation in the northeastern mediterran

Authors: Yannis N Krestenitis Yannis S Androulidakis Yannis N Kontos George Georgakopoulos

Publish Date: 2010/02/23

Volume: 15, Issue: 3, Pages: 353-368

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Abstract

Lowelevation coastal areas and their populations are at risk during and after the appearance of a storm surge event Coastal flooding as a result of storm surge events is investigated in this paper for a number of areas around the northeastern NE Mediterranean coastal zone Adriatic Aegean and north Levantine seas The sea level rise SLR due to storm surge events is examined for the period 2000–2004 Wind data atmospheric pressure and wave data for this period as well as in situ sea elevation measurements from stations around the Mediterranean coasts were used Potential inundation zones were then identified using a 90m horizontal resolution digital elevation model DEM At these zones the sea surface elevations were calculated for the study period using the collected data and a 2D storm surge simulation model 1/10o×1/10o output examining the sea level alteration in specific coastal areas where in situ measurements are absent and are characterised as “risky” in inundation areas due to their topography In order to determine the level of storm track implication on major SLR incidents the trajectories of the respective storm events were computed The aim of this paper is to investigate the major storm surge events that appeared during the study period identify the major “risky” costal regions along the northeastern Mediterranean coast and determine their hazard level due to inundation caused by storm surge phenomena The combination of the risk level determination of an area and the calculation of sea level alteration is an important tool in terms of predicting and protecting the coastal area from extreme meteorological incidentsThis study was carried out with the financial contribution of the EU project CORI «Prevention and management of sea originated risks to the coastal zone» INTERREG IIIB/ARCHIMED We thank Gerasimos Korres and the POSEIDON team Hellenic Center for Marine Research for providing the POSEIDONSKIRON atmospheric and wave fields The satellite images were downloaded from the AVISO website wwwavisooceanobscom We also thank the anonymous reviewer for his helpful suggestions and acknowledge ICPSM of the Municipality of Venice for the kind concession of the ISMARCNR data for year 2001

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