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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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Initial Publication Date: December 7, 2016

Investigating Influence of Wind Speed on Storm Surge

Storm Surge and Isle de Jean Charles

The next step is to plug your numbers into the CHARCOL storm surge model (link is external).

The three parameters to be entered in the model are:

  1. Water depth (the depth of the water at the deepest point before storm surge (10 m depth in our example)
  2. Wind velocity (m/s)
  3. Bed slope (as calculated above)

Using your calculated bed slope number for Isle de Jean Charles, experiment to find out how wind velocity values affect the storm surge level. The water depth will stay at 10 m. The slope will stay at the calculated value. Just manipulate wind speed and enter the values in the chart below.

Tip: To "visualize" the wind speeds in more familiar units of miles/hour (mph) – roughly double the m/s value, so 20 m/s = 44.74 mph; 60 m/s = 134 mph) A hurricane with wind speed of 130 - 156 mph is a category 4, according to the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

(Note: the model does not allow you to put in exact values – just select the closest value it will allow)

Water depth (m)Bed SlopeWind SpeedStorm surge height
100.0002820 m/sec
100.0002830 m/sec
100.0002840 m/sec
100.0002860 m/sec

Select the variables in the model and click "Plot". Be careful to re-enter the water depth and bed slope for each model run, as they will revert to default values after each run.

Based on your model results as shown in the table above, what is the effect of doubling the wind speed? (So compare the storm surge height for a wind speed of 20 m/s against that at 40 m/s, or compare the storm surge height for a wind speed of 30 m/s against that at 60 m/s)

Proceed to the Module 8 Lab to enter your storm surge height results.

Figure 8.10: Screenshot of the surge model.

Credit: CoastalHazards.org

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »