The past month of storms along the Pacific Coast have led to more than $15B in property and infrastructure damage from coastal erosion, mud slides and compound flooding. The Nine “atmospheric river” events that occurred in the almost 30-day period resulted in rain to some parts of the region greater than their yearly rainfall totals.
The damage to the California coastline was attributable to hazards including driving winds, rain, and wave induced storm surge. Large storm waves induce water level setup that increases the amount of flooding and coastal damage. In addition, excessive runoff compounds flooding that leads to impairment of stormwater systems causing damage to infrastructure and the environment. The ability to forecast, detect and measure ocean waves is critical to assessing coastal protection as well as the safety of offshore operations. One of the world’s largest real-time ocean weather sensor networks is being developed by Sofar Ocean (Sofar) to analyze the impact of waves on our climate and our coastlines. Sofar uses a metocean buoy called “Spotter” which collects and transmits wave, wind, sea surface temperature and barometric pressure data in real time. At one point, in these past storms, Sofar measured wave heights of 50 feet off the northern California coast. (See LinkedIn post where they measured the activity.)
The ability to collect data real time about our oceans assists environmental scientists pinpoint issues that can impact coastal resiliency and assist communities strengthen or improve their natural or man-made barriers. Once collected, environmental scientists can determine how best to protect the coastlines. Working with the data provided by Sofar, Integral Consulting has assessed vulnerability and risk to coastal communities and helped guide these areas through an adaptation planning process to minimize the inevitable impacts of increased storm hazards due to sea level rise on property, infrastructure and critical ecosystems.
Economic analyses are also critical to supporting decision-making about coastal resilience. In vulnerability assessments, physical damage and economic information is integrated to quantify market and non-market impacts on coastal assets. For adaptation assessments, tradeoffs between the business-as-usual or baseline situation are considered as are various adaptation approaches over time. These analyses can include both physical impacts on built and natural assets, and the fiscal impacts for asset managers and local communities, such as reduced tourism and property tax revenues.
By combing sophisticated ocean data collection, hazards modeling, and cutting edge environmental and economic analyses, community leaders and facilities managers can better prepare for the inevitable changes we face to climate change and sea level rise. Using these tools and technologies leads to sustainable community and facilities planning and resource management.
Bomb cyclone to unleash life-threatening flooding in California (msn.com)
California Storms Leave Billions of Dollars in Damage to Businesses, Homes and Infrastructure - WSJ
Understanding Stormwater Inundation (noaa.gov)
