Thomas O. Herrington

Street-Scale Modeling of Storm Surge Inundation along the New Jersey Hudson River Waterfront

AbstractA new, high-resolution, hydrodynamic model that encompasses the urban coastal waters of New Jersey along the Hudson River Waterfront opposite New York City, New York, has been developed and validated for simulating inundation during Hurricane Sandy. A 3.1-m-resolution square model grid combined with a high-resolution lidar elevation dataset permits a street-by-street focus to inundation modeling. The waterfront inundation model is a triple-nested Stevens Institute Estuarine and Coastal Ocean Hydrodynamic Model (sECOM) application; sECOM is a successor model to the Princeton Ocean Model family of models. Robust flooding and drying of land in the model physics provides for the dynamic prediction of flood elevations and velocities across land features during inundation events. The inundation model was forced by water levels from the extensively validated New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System (NYHOPS) hindcast of that hurricane.Validation against 56 watermarks and 16 edgemarks provided via t...

THE STEVENS FLOOD ADVISORY SYSTEM: OPERATIONAL H3E FLOOD FORECASTS FOR THE GREATER NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY METROPOLITAN REGION

This paper presents the automation, website interface, and verification of the Stevens Flood Advisory System (SFAS, http://stevens.edu/SFAS). The fully-automated, ensemble-based flood advisory system dynamically integrates real-time observations and river and coastal flood models forced by an ensemble of meteorological models at various scales to produce and serve street scale flood forecasts over urban terrain. SFAS is applied to the Greater NY/NJ Metropolitan region, and is used routinely by multiple forecast offices and departments within the US National Weather Service (NWS), regional and municipal Offices of Emergency Management, as well as the general public. Every six hours, the underlying H3E (Hydrologic–Hydraulic–Hydrodynamic Ensemble) modelling framework, prepares, runs, data-assimilates, and integrates results from 375 dynamic model simulations to produce actionable, probabilistic ensemble forecasts of upland and coastal (storm surge) flooding conditions with an 81-h forecast horizon. Meteorological forcing to the H3E models is provided by 125 weather model ensemble members as well as deterministic weather models from major weather agencies (NCEP, ECMWF, CMC) and academia. The state-of-the-art SFAS, a replacement of the well-known, but deterministic, Storm Surge Warning System (SSWS) that was highlighted during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and more recently extratropical cyclone Jonas, has been operational since the end of 2015.

Evaluation of the Flow Distortion around the Campbell Scientific CSAT3 Sonic Anemometer Relative to Incident Wind Direction

Abstract In June 2002, a high-frequency air–sea momentum system was deployed in the surf zone for 3 days as part of an experiment to quantify air–sea momentum transfer when the wind and wave direction were at angles. The system obtained measurements in the nearshore via a high-resolution Campbell Scientific CSAT3 3D sonic anemometer and five high-frequency saltwater wave staffs. An advantage of the air–sea momentum system is that direct measurements of the atmospheric turbulent fluctuations can be obtained and applied to the calculation of momentum transfer at the air–sea interface. The Campbell Scientific CSAT3 sonic anemometer was postcalibrated under turbulent wind conditions to determine incident wind direction measurements influenced by the geometry of the instrument. Measurement results are compared to a pre-established benchmark, constant tow speed; and the mean wind speed, incident wind direction, and spectral density characteristics are evaluated to resolve specific instrument orientations in whi...

Integrated Operational Control of Unattended Distributed Coastal Sensor Web Systems With Mobile Autonomous Robots

Unattended autonomous systems of the future will involve groups of static and mobile sensors functioning in coordination to achieve overall task objectives. Such systems can be viewed as wirelessly networked unmanned heterogeneous sensor networks. We discuss a distributed heterogeneous sensing system with static sensors and mobile robots with novel adaptive control optimization algorithms for dynamic adaptation, coordinated control and end to end resource management of all sensors in response to detected events to achieve overall system goals and objectives. While our system design is applicable to a host of domains, it has been applied to and tested offline on an existing, functional maritime sensor web system, the New York Harbor Observation and Prediction System (NYHOPS) comprised of a host of maritime ocean and land sensors. Our goal is to enable adaptive control technologies to make the NYHOPS sensor web react faster and more effectively to threats or changing conditions, and to further maritime homeland security for the New York Harbor. Our contribution allows static sensors to work seamlessly with unmanned vehicles that can be deployed autonomously in response to detected events, and dynamically adjust operational parameters of static and mobile assets in the sensor web. Results for large area coastal monitoring are presented. Offline results using actual modeled data from in situ sensory measurements from the NYHOPS sensor web demonstrate how the sensor parameters can be adapted to maximize observability of a freshwater plume while ensuring that individual system components operate within their physical limitations.

Using real world data in education

The integration of real world data into classrooms is a powerful mechanism to increase student interest and understanding of concepts. An increasing number of sources of real world data are becoming available for use in education. It is important for the sources of reliable data to be accessible by nonexpert audiences. Teacher training opportunities will expand the use of these educational materials and data in classrooms. However more research and development is needed to improve methods of data display and visualizations to better facilitate the understanding of real world data by non-expert audiences, including teachers and students

NEARSHORE COASTAL PROCESSES ADJACENT TO A TIDAL INLET

Detailed studies have been undertaken to assist in the design of major extensions to the port of Haifa. Both numerical and physical model studies were done to optimise the mooring conditions vis a vis the harbour approach and entrance layout. The adopted layout deviates from the normal straight approach to the harbour entrance. This layout, together with suitable aids to navigation, was found to be nautically acceptable, and generally better with regard to mooring conditions, on the basis of extensive nautical design studies.Hwa-Lian Harbour is located at the north-eastern coast of Taiwan, where is relatively exposed to the threat of typhoon waves from the Pacific Ocean. In the summer season, harbour resonance caused by typhoon waves which generated at the eastern ocean of the Philippine. In order to obtain a better understanding of the existing problem and find out a feasible solution to improve harbour instability. Typhoon waves measurement, wave characteristics analysis, down-time evaluation for harbour operation, hydraulic model tests are carried out in this program. Under the action of typhoon waves, the wave spectra show that inside the harbors short period energy component has been damped by breakwater, but the long period energy increased by resonance hundred times. The hydraulic model test can reproduce the prototype phenomena successfully. The result of model tests indicate that by constructing a jetty at the harbour entrance or building a short groin at the corner of terminal #25, the long period wave height amplification agitated by typhoon waves can be eliminated about 50%. The width of harbour basin 800m is about one half of wave length in the basin for period 140sec which occurs the maximum wave amplification.Two-stage methodology of shoreline prediction for long coastal segments is presented in the study. About 30-km stretch of seaward coast of the Hel Peninsula was selected for the analysis. In 1st stage the shoreline evolution was assessed ignoring local effects of man-made structures. Those calculations allowed the identification of potentially eroding spots and the explanation of causes of erosion. In 2nd stage a 2-km eroding sub-segment of the Peninsula in the vicinity of existing harbour was thoroughly examined including local man-induced effects. The computations properly reproduced the shoreline evolution along this sub-segment over a long period between 1934 and 1997.In connection with the dredging and reclamation works at the Oresund Link Project between Denmark and Sweden carried out by the Contractor, Oresund Marine Joint Venture (OMJV), an intensive spill monitoring campaign has been performed in order to fulfil the environmental requirements set by the Danish and Swedish Authorities. Spill in this context is defined as the overall amount of suspended sediment originating from dredging and reclamation activities leaving the working zone. The maximum spill limit is set to 5% of the dredged material, which has to be monitored, analysed and calculated within 25% accuracy. Velocity data are measured by means of a broad band ADCP and turbidity data by four OBS probes (output in FTU). The FTUs are converted into sediment content in mg/1 by water samples. The analyses carried out, results in high acceptance levels for the conversion to be implemented as a linear relation which can be forced through the origin. Furthermore analyses verifies that the applied setup with a 4-point turbidity profile is a reasonable approximation to the true turbidity profile. Finally the maximum turbidity is on average located at a distance 30-40% from the seabed.