3D Morphodynamic Visualizations of Storm Impacts for Decision Support.

Abstract

3D flood visualizations are commonly used by coastal managers and other experts to engage the public regarding storm impacts, and to support management decisions. 3D flood visualizations do not, however, capture physical changes to the landscape, such as erosion, that result from storms and do significant damage to human habitations and change ecological systems. We address this gap by presenting novel 3D morphodynamic visualizations that depict physical changes to the coastal morphology wrought by modelled storms. We propose these visualizations may be more effective than flood visualizations as decision support tools in situations where shoreline change is a factor. We describe the process of creating the visualizations for storm, sea level, and mitigation scenarios and make observations of their possibilities and limitations. The visualizations plainly show profoundly different outcomes than flood visualizations for the same storm. These visualizations may be extremely useful in the sedimentary contexts considered. However, the lack of clear conventions and complexity of creating these visualizations means that more experimentation is required before such visualizations can be considered for wide application.