NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF HURRICANE-INDUCED COASTAL EROSION HAZARDS IN PUERTO RICO

Abstract

Storms are one of the main causes of coastal erosion, causing substantial property and infrastructure losses in coastal communities. Coastal erosion is particularly damaging in underrepresented communities that are unable to meet building and zoning regulations due to limited resources [Lam, 2014]. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a probabilistic assessment of hurricane-induced coastal erosion for sandy coastlines along the eastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico. However, the current USGS product incorporates an empirical equation with inputs of beach slope and deep-water wave height and period [Stockdon, 2006] to predict the wave runup. Though this is appropriate for open coast sandy beaches, it is not valid for the rocky and reef lined coasts of Puerto Rico due to their complex bathymetries, steep slopes, and large bottom roughness. To expand this tool to Puerto Rico, the USGS has created 1-dimensional XBeach [Roelvink, 2009] models around the island.