Coastal flood inundation modelling with a 2-D shallow water equation solver

Wu X, Hall J, Liang Q

Coastal flood risk analysis involves integration over a wide range of hydraulic loadings, beach morphologies, coastal structural responses and flood inundation scenarios. The latter involves the use of 2-D hydrodynamic simulation models. Accurate risk estimates in complex simulations may require thousands of model simulations. Here we describe the adaptation and application of a 2-D shallow water equation solver to a realistic scenario of flood inundation over a low-lying land containing a number of settlements located at the Norfolk coast of the southern North Sea in UK, where flooding may be the consequence of the coastal flood defences breaching and overtopping. In order to cover the uncertainties associated with the loadings over time, a range of wave height and water levels and breached locations are input to represent the best available understanding of how and why the flooding developing due to overtopping and breaching. A detailed comparison of predicted inundation extent is investigated. © 2010 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).