Earth Data Science
Coastal Probabilistic Hazard Analysis (FEMA-BOA)
Description
FEMA has recently conducted new coastal hazard and risk studies to support the mission and goals of the National Flood Insurance Program with new flood maps. These studies are costly and generate large volumes of model-generated data that capture the range of hurricane impacts for a region. The ADCIRC model has been used for all recent FEMA studies of this nature. Beyond the immediate use for mapping activities, these collections of model results can be used for other applications. The key to leveraging these data is to develop “surrogate models” that statistically represent the underlying model dynamics as best as possible, thus allowing for rapid statistical simulations of unmodeled events. This project will implement various surrogate modeling approaches using the flood insurance study for FEMA’s Region 3 (NC/VA border through the Delaware coast), which RENCI conducted. These data include time and spatially varying simulated waves, water levels, wind, atmospheric pressure, and currents, among other variables. These data could be useful for other efforts if they were more easily discoverable and accessible. The surrogate models will be developed and implemented by collaborators at the University of Notre Dame. RENCI will define and implement the needed cyberinfrastructure to make the data externally accessible through a geospatial database. The methods and approach will subsequently be used to develop similar databases for other regional FEMA coastal study datasets.
RENCI's Role
RENCI is developing the cyberinfrastructure (database, storage, access) for the project’s collection of ADCIRC results. Brian Blanton leads this project.