As the world moves towards resilient and safe solutions against natural disasters and climate change, numerical modeling of Natural and Nature-based Features (NNBF) has been a beneficial approach in recent years. However, when it comes to estuarine regions, it is vital to analyze these features as a holistic system to understand and even predict their behavior under compound flood events comprising coastal and riverine interactions. Thus, NNBF could reduce multi-flood hazard effects in the community while boosting the surrounding ecosystem.
This project aims to determine the most optimum combination of riverine and coastal NNBF under compound flood events so that the selection and design of solutions can be more effective and predictive. The compound model will include coastal and riverine flow and will be tested using an idealized domain based on observed elevation transects of the river-ocean encounters. Then, NNBFs will be added to the model and tested under compound flood events like tropical cyclones. The estuaries will be classified based on similar characteristics, thus identifying the most optimum NNBF system configuration for each type of estuary dynamics. As the world is increasingly concerned about the side effects of human intervention, it is possible to investigate and apply NNBFs so that our future interventions can be multifunctional (i.e., effective and safe) but also sustainable and resilient.
Team Members
Dr. Felix Santiago-Collazo, Luciana Iannone Tarcha
Sponsor
Network for Engineering with Nature
