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Hendrik Tolman

The western coastline of Alaska spans over 10,000 km of diverse topography ranging from low lying tundra in the north to sharp volcanic relief in the south. Included in this range are areas highly susceptible to powerful storms which can cause coastal flooding, erosion and have many other negative effects on the environment and commercial efforts in the region. In order to better understand the multi-scale and interactive physics of the deep ocean,continental shelf, near shore, and coast, a large unstructured domain hydrodynamic model is being developed using the finite element, free surface circulation code ADCIRC.This model is a high resolution, accurate, and robust computational model of Alaska’s coastal environment...
The western coastline of Alaska is highly susceptible to coastal storms, which can cause coastal erosion, flooding, and have other pernicious effects to the environment and commercial efforts. The reduction in ice coverage due to climate change could potentially increase the frequency and degree of coastal flooding and erosion. Further, estuaries and delta systems act as conduits for storm surges, so when there is less nearshore ice coverage, these systems could introduce storm surge into terrestrial environments unaccustomed to saline intrusion, flooding, or other alien biogeochemical factors.This project quantified the effect of reduced nearshore ice coverage on coastal flooding. The project developed a large...
Categories: Collection, Data; Tags: Academics & scientific researchers, COASTAL AREAS, COASTAL AREAS, COASTAL PROCESSES, COASTAL PROCESSES, All tags...
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Modeling Western Alaska Coastal Hazards
The western coastline of Alaska is highly susceptible to coastal storms, which can cause erosion, flooding, and saltwater storm surge, affecting natural ecosystems, human communities, and commercial activity. Historically, a large buffer of ice along the shoreline has protected this region from some of the more severe effects of coastal storms. However, climate change may not only increase the frequency and intensity of storms, but also cause a loss of shoreline ice, possibly increasing the incidence of coastal erosion and flooding and introducing saltwater to freshwater environments. These hazards have the potential to substantially disrupt the environment and commerce in the region, but more information is needed...
An integrated high resolution tide and storm surge model has been developedfor all of coastal Alaska. The model uses the ADCIRC basin-to-channelscale unstructured grid circulation code. Tidal forcing from global tidal modelsand meteorological forcing from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysisare used. The model’s tidal solution has been validated at 121 shelf andnearshore stations. The model’s skill has been investigated for summer, falland winter storms. Sea ice has been incorporated through a parameterizedwind drag coefficient which modifies the air-sea drag under ice coverage.Three large storms with distinctly different ice coverages were chosen to exhibitthe effect of sea ice on the resulting storm surge. The...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Academics & scientific researchers, COASTAL AREAS, COASTAL AREAS, COASTAL PROCESSES, COASTAL PROCESSES, All tags...
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The western coastline of Alaska is highly susceptible to coastal storms, which can cause coastal erosion, flooding, and have other pernicious effects to the environment and commercial efforts. The reduction in ice coverage due to climate change could potentially increase the frequency and degree of coastal flooding and erosion. Further, estuaries and delta systems act as conduits for storm surges, so when there is less nearshore ice coverage, these systems could introduce storm surge into terrestrial environments unaccustomed to saline intrusion, flooding, or other alien biogeochemical factors.​This project quantified the effect of reduced nearshore ice coverage on coastal flooding. The project developed a large...
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