Factors influencing storm surges in the West Korean Bay of the Yellow Sea: a case study of typhoon Winnie, 1997

摘要

Coastal disasters due to storms and related prevention and prediction are key issues in coastal environmental management and planning. In the present study, the coupled storm surge-tide-wave model has been used for studying the effects of several factors on the storm surges in the West Korean Bay during the 1997 Winnie. The results have shown that the coupled model is capable of predicting the total water level under storm events with reasonable accuracy. The results have also shown that the river discharge plays an important role in the storm surge development. The peak surges at stations 1 and 2 located in the river estuaries were 0.2-1.5 m larger than those at the stations 3 and 4. Especially, the peak surge at the station 3 located in the Taedong River estuary was much smaller compared to those at the stations 1 and 2, due to the control of the river discharge by barrages such as the West Sea Barrage. The peak surge at the station 1 located in the Amrok River estuary was 12% larger than that at the station 2 located in the Chongchon River estuary, due to the considerable difference in the river discharges. In summary, our results have shown that integrating the coupled storm surge-tide-wave model technology with the real-time river discharge forecast is feasible for predicting the inundation under both storm surge and riverine floods for the West Korean Bay.