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2024 EWRI Congress

Hydraulics & Waterways

Coastal and Estuary Hydraulics - II

287 - Investigation of Compound Flooding on the Lower Mississippi River

Monday, May 20, 2024
3:30 PM – 3:45 PM CT
Room: S 103 B
In July of 2019 Hurricane Barry struck Coastal Louisiana while the Mississippi River was at a discharge of over 1 million cfs. It is rare for tropical storm impacts to be coincident with the Mississippi River being near flood stage. This event highlighted the need to understand the interaction of coastal storm surge and riverine flood flows along the Mississippi River. We utilized a fully-coupled Adaptive Hydraulics (AdH) model to simulate compound flooding on the Mississippi River for Hurricane Barry and a set of hypothetical discharge and storm surge scenarios. For each discharge and storm surge combination we also simulated the hydraulics of each driver individually, allowing for the identification of the transition zone over a range of forcings. The Mississippi River provides a unique setting for such a study due to its large conveyance, depths, and confinement which limits pluvial inputs. Identification of the transition zone and the non-linear impacts will provide insight into the risk from compound flood events. Understanding the dynamics during compound flood events will aid in identifying when and where it is appropriate to utilize established riverine or storm surge models.