Oct 10, 2016
Hurricane Sandy’s flood frequency increasing from year 1800 to 2100
by
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- States that coastal flood hazard varies in response to changes in storm surge climatology and the sea level
- Combines probabilistic projections of the sea level and storm surge climatology to estimate the temporal evolution of flood hazard
- Finds that New York City’s flood hazard has increased significantly over the past two centuries and is very likely to increase more sharply over the 21st century
- Finds that due to the effect of sea level rise, the return period of Hurricane Sandy’s flood height decreased by a factor of ∼3× from year 1800 to 2000 and is estimated to decrease by a further ∼4.4× from 2000 to 2100 under a moderate-emissions pathway
- Finds that when potential storm climatology change over the 21st century is also accounted for, Sandy’s return period is estimated to decrease by ∼3× to 17× from 2000 to 2100