Idealized Modeling of the Impact of Coastal Sea Level on River Flooding

River flooding is an issue of growing concern in an ever-changing climate. A variety of aspects (e.g. sea-level rise) of climate change affect river flooding, there are many potential aspects that can increase the probability of river flooding. We developed an idealized 1D model, based on the St. Venant equation that allows for testing various scenarios and probabilities of events. Our model allows for alterations to be made to the river characteristics (i.e. bed slope, rainfall). We can change the makeup of our river channel seeing how different parameters will affect the potential for a river flooding. Through testing we found that an increased sea level does influence probability of river flooding. An increased sea level includes escalated risk of river flood to occur, the opposite occurs with a lowered sea level. Our simulations help indicate that the role of sea level has great effects on river channel flooding.