SURGE AND WAVE MODELING FOR THE LOUISIANA COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION STUDY

摘要

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration (LaCPR) study was authorized by the U.S. Congress to develop a range of flood control, coastal restoration, and hurricane protection measures to make South Louisiana more resilient to hurricane risk. This article briefly describes the approach and integrated modeling system applied to estimate surge and waves. The effect of proposed project alternatives on storm surge levels and waves had to be examined over large spatial and temporal scales for the LaCPR study. A regional surge and wave model was developed to meet this requirement. The modeling system developed has unprecedented detail and captures the important scales of motion for hurricane storm surge inundation and waves. Both natural features and man-made structures can be appropriately represented, which allows for a regional, holistic approach to the evaluation of storm surge and wave mitigation where both engineered and natural features are considered. The computed surge and waves provided input for the hydraulic analysis, which applied frequency curves computed with a modified Joint Probability Method (JPM) referred to as the JPM with Optimal Sampling (JPM-OS). The computed exterior frequency curves were used to determine required levee heights and estimate interior stage frequency curves for calculating damages. Sample surge results are presented which indicate that proposed protection alternatives can impact water levels regionally and that wetland loss may result in increased surges at some locations along the coast.