Hindcasting of Compound Pluvial, Fluvial, and Coastal Flooding during Hurricane Harvey (2017) using Delft3D-FM

Hindcasting of Compound Pluvial, Fluvial, and Coastal Flooding during Hurricane Harvey (2017) using Delft3D-FM | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Hindcasting of Compound Pluvial, Fluvial, and Coastal Flooding during Hurricane Harvey (2017) using Delft3D-FM Wonhyun Lee, Alexander Y. Sun, Bridget R. Scanlon, Clint Dawson This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2901611/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 15 Oct, 2023 Read the published version in Natural Hazards → Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Hurricane Harvey (2017) resulted in unprecedented damage from storm surge, and rainfall (pluvial) and riverine (fluvial) flooding in the Houston-Galveston area of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The objective of this study was to better quantify the impacts of compound flooding and to assess the relative contributions of storm surge, pluvial and fluvial flooding in a complex coastal environment using Hurricane Harvey as a case study. Although significant work has been done on Hurricane Harvey hindcasting, large-scale coupled modeling incorporating a multitude of land and ocean flood generation mechanisms is still at its early stage. Here we developed a comprehensive numerical modeling framework to simulate flood exents and levels during Hurricane Harvey using the open-source Delft3D Flexible Mesh, and validated results against observed water levels, waves, winds, hydrographs and high water marks. A nested mesh was developed to represent ocean and inland areas, enabling higher resolution for land regions of interest while balancing overall computational load. Results show that pluvial flooding dominated during Harvey, accounting for ~ 60–65% of flooding in the Houston/Galveston areas, attributed to widespread heavy rainfall being the dominant driving force. Widespread rainfall caused extensive pluvial flooding in watersheds and floodplains in West and South Bays ( ≤ ~ 1.5 m), upper Galveston Bay (Trinity River Basin, 2 ~ 3 m), and Harris County ( ≤ ~ 2.5 m). River runoff led the local flooding of ~ 1 to 2 m in the river basins. Significant surge levels were simulated northwest of main Bay (2 ~ 2.5 m) and Galveston Bay (1 ~ 2 m) areas and in several watersheds in West/East of Galveston Bay. Maximum flooding extent developed around August 29, 2017, which compared well to the flood depth data released by FEMA. Additional sensitivity studies suggest that increased compound flooding (e.g., 15% increase in combined pluvial and fluvial flooding) can lead to significantly more increase (0.3 ~ 0.5 m) in flood depths in low-lying regions. Nonlinear effects of compound flooding greater than individual components summed up. Results from this large-scale modeling analysis contribute to understanding of compound flooding risks in coastal urban areas, providing a useful basis for coastal risk management and hazard mitigation amid climate change. Our integrated framework is general and can be readily applied to other coastal compound flooding analyses. Delft3D-FM Compound flooding Pluvial flooding Fluvial flooding Storm surge Hurricane Harvey Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 15 Oct, 2023 Read the published version in Natural Hazards → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major revisions 21 Aug, 2023 Reviewers agreed at journal 11 May, 2023 Reviewers invited by journal 11 May, 2023 Editor assigned by journal 10 May, 2023 First submitted to journal 06 May, 2023 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2901611","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":199083197,"identity":"1a09b39d-eb18-45fc-8f75-d5f07b9cf256","order_by":0,"name":"Wonhyun Lee","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABDUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNjDJx8DA+BhV4gABLUCS2RiJT5wWNmmitBgc7z32mLftDgMbe/Ox6oKKWgaD+83HJH78YZDju5GAXcuZc+nGvG3PGNh4jqXdnnHmOIPBMbZkw942BmNJHFrMbuSYSfO2HWZgk8gxu83bdgyohcfwAW8DQ+IGglrk338r5v0H0sL/4eCfPwz1hLVI8LAx8zbUgGxhfMzDxpBggEOL/ZkzZpJzzh3mYeNJM5aecewAj+SxNGNj2TYJw5lnHmDVItneYybxpuywHD/74YefC2rq5PgOH34m+eaPjTzfcey2gAATDwMDD5R9GMaQwKkcBBh/INh1eFWOglEwCkbByAQAGzpb1aPY6FYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1987-6304","institution":"UT Austin: The University of Texas at Austin","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wonhyun","middleName":"","lastName":"Lee","suffix":""},{"id":199083198,"identity":"373697e7-7056-4399-ad0a-f0e1173fc20c","order_by":1,"name":"Alexander Y. 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The objective of this study was to better quantify the impacts of compound flooding and to assess the relative contributions of storm surge, pluvial and fluvial flooding in a complex coastal environment using Hurricane Harvey as a case study. Although significant work has been done on Hurricane Harvey hindcasting, large-scale coupled modeling incorporating a multitude of land and ocean flood generation mechanisms is still at its early stage. Here we developed a comprehensive numerical modeling framework to simulate flood exents and levels during Hurricane Harvey using the open-source Delft3D Flexible Mesh, and validated results against observed water levels, waves, winds, hydrographs and high water marks. A nested mesh was developed to represent ocean and inland areas, enabling higher resolution for land regions of interest while balancing overall computational load. Results show that pluvial flooding dominated during Harvey, accounting for ~\u0026thinsp;60\u0026ndash;65% of flooding in the Houston/Galveston areas, attributed to widespread heavy rainfall being the dominant driving force. Widespread rainfall caused extensive pluvial flooding in watersheds and floodplains in West and South Bays (\u0026thinsp;\u0026le;\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;1.5 m), upper Galveston Bay (Trinity River Basin, 2\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;3 m), and Harris County (\u0026thinsp;\u0026le;\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;2.5 m). River runoff led the local flooding of ~\u0026thinsp;1 to 2 m in the river basins. Significant surge levels were simulated northwest of main Bay (2\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;2.5 m) and Galveston Bay (1\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;2 m) areas and in several watersheds in West/East of Galveston Bay. Maximum flooding extent developed around August 29, 2017, which compared well to the flood depth data released by FEMA. Additional sensitivity studies suggest that increased compound flooding (e.g., 15% increase in combined pluvial and fluvial flooding) can lead to significantly more increase (0.3\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;0.5 m) in flood depths in low-lying regions. Nonlinear effects of compound flooding greater than individual components summed up. Results from this large-scale modeling analysis contribute to understanding of compound flooding risks in coastal urban areas, providing a useful basis for coastal risk management and hazard mitigation amid climate change. Our integrated framework is general and can be readily applied to other coastal compound flooding analyses.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Hindcasting of Compound Pluvial, Fluvial, and Coastal Flooding during Hurricane Harvey (2017) using Delft3D-FM","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2023-05-15 05:25:18","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2901611/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Major revisions","date":"2023-08-21T20:10:39+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"","date":"2023-05-11T14:20:08+00:00","index":0,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2023-05-11T10:04:51+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2023-05-10T12:12:22+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Natural Hazards","date":"2023-05-06T07:56:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"natural-hazards","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nhaz","sideBox":"Learn more about [Natural Hazards](https://www.springer.com/journal/11069)","snPcode":"11069","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11069/3","title":"Natural Hazards","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"652c26e1-3643-4c33-ad17-4d0e24df4c2c","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 15th, 2023","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2023-10-16T15:06:12+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-2901611","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06247-9","journal":{"identity":"natural-hazards","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Natural Hazards"},"publishedOn":"2023-10-15 15:02:48","publishedOnDateReadable":"October 15th, 2023"},"versionCreatedAt":"2023-05-15 05:25:18","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s11069-023-06247-9","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06247-9","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-2901611","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-2901611","identity":"rs-2901611","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"cBFmMYwuxLRRLfASyISRj","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}