Assessing Socio-economic Impacts of Compound Flooding for U.S. Coastal Communities

Abstract

Compound flooding, characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of multiple flooding drivers such as storm surge, heavy precipitation, and high river discharge, has become an increasingly pressing issue for coastal communities worldwide. The United States Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coastal areas with densely populated low-lying coastlines are particularly vulnerable to these events. As climate change exacerbates the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, the need to better understand and predict compound flooding impacts is more critical than ever. Previous research on compound flooding has primarily relied on statistical and probabilistic approaches to quantify the likelihood of these events and their impacts on coastal communities. While these methods have provided valuable insights into the occurrence likelihood and magnitude of compound flooding, they often fail to capture the complex interactions between flood drivers and their contributions to socio-economic losses. To address these limitations, our research employs an impact-based methodology, which focuses on assessing the direct losses of flooding on coastal infrastructure and communities. By considering the impacts of flooding on properties and agriculture we quantify different flood drivers’ contributions to overall losses in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coastal areas and assess what portion of socio-economic losses was caused by compound flooding in the past. This bottom-up approach allows for a more comprehensive assessment of compound flooding impacts, considering all the most relevant hydrometeorological drivers. Furthermore, this study compares the findings with previous research that utilized statistical and probabilistic methodologies to assess overlap between identified hotspots of higher compound flood potential.

CITATION:

Ali, J., Wahl, T., Enriquez, A., Rashid, M. M., Gall, M., & Emrich, C. T. (2023). Assessing Socio-economic Impacts of Compound Flooding for US Coastal Communities. AGU Fall Meeting 2023 . December 27, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.170365330.00705291/v1