Flooding inundation during hurricanes has been very costly and dangerous.
However, the impact of climate change on hurricane flooding is not well understood at
present. As sea surface temperatures increase, it is expected that hurricane intensity will
increase and sea levels will rise. It is further hypothesized that climate change will
increase hurricane flooding inundation, which would increase property damages and
adversely affect a greater number of people. This thesis presents a case study of Corpus
Christi, Texas, which analyzes the impact of climate change on hurricane flooding. Sea
level rise projections and intensification of historical hurricanes were considered in this
study. Storm surges were determined with the ADCIRC numerical model, while GIS
was used to estimate area flooded, property damages, and population affected.
Flooding inundation, property damages, and number of people affected by
flooding increases as the intensity of the hurricane increases. As hurricane intensity
increases and sea levels rise, the depth of flooding also increases dramatically. Based on
two historical hurricanes and one shifted historical hurricane, on average the inundated
area increases about 11 km2 per degree Celsius of sea surface temperature rise, the property damages increase by about $110 million per degree Celsius of sea surface
temperature rise, and the number of people affected by flooding inundation increases by
about 4,900 per degree Celsius of sea surface temperature rise. These results indicate
that it may become necessary to consider the effects of climate change when building
future coastal communities and adapting the protection of existing communities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-616 |
| Date | 2009 May 1900 |
| Creators | Frey, Ashley E. |
| Contributors | Irish, Jennifer L. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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