Compound Inland and Coastal Flood Inundation Studies Using the NUOPC/ESMF Framework

To enable flexible model coupling in compound inland and coastal flood inundation studies, a coupling framework based on ESMF/NUOPC technology under a common modeling framework called the NOAA Environmental Modeling System (NEMS) is being developed. The coupling strategy provides dynamic interaction between the wave (WAVEWATCH III), storm surge (ADCIRC) and hydrology (National Water Model; NWM) models. The data communication between models take place interactively by sending spatiotemporal water level and current fields from the storm surge component to the wave component, and in turn send radiation stress gradients from the wave component to the storm surge component. The system is forced by high-resolution wind and pressure fields derived from the HWRF model, and tidal constituents at the boundaries of the surge model. ADCIRC component interacts with NWM by providing water level and current velocities at the NWM coastal boundaries and receiving inland flooding discharge information as river inflow boundary condition in the landward side. The wave-storm surge coupled sub-system was evaluated for Hurricane Ike, Isabel and Andrew for the whole U.S. Atlantic coasts. The ADCIRC-NWM sub-system will be evaluated for Hurricane Isabel and Sandy for the Delaware Bay region before its final validation of ADCIRC-WW3-NWM for the whole U.S. Atlantic coast.