Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay

Rising waters and land subsidence are increasing relative sea levels in western and northern Alaska, forcing communities to relocate or armor in place. To appropriately plan and make equitable decisions, there is a need to forecast the risk of flood exposure in coastal Alaskan communities and to eva...

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Published in:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Main Authors: Anna Christina Miller, Thomas Michael Ravens
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030406
https://doaj.org/article/7dc96e34ab2045829ef7ed833e5f429c
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spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7dc96e34ab2045829ef7ed833e5f429c 2023-05-15T15:16:46+02:00 Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay Anna Christina Miller Thomas Michael Ravens 2022-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030406 https://doaj.org/article/7dc96e34ab2045829ef7ed833e5f429c EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/10/3/406 https://doaj.org/toc/2077-1312 doi:10.3390/jmse10030406 2077-1312 https://doaj.org/article/7dc96e34ab2045829ef7ed833e5f429c Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Vol 10, Iss 406, p 406 (2022) Alaska coastal flooding Alaska flood risk estimation and mitigation Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering VM1-989 Oceanography GC1-1581 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030406 2022-12-31T03:58:11Z Rising waters and land subsidence are increasing relative sea levels in western and northern Alaska, forcing communities to relocate or armor in place. To appropriately plan and make equitable decisions, there is a need to forecast the risk of flood exposure in coastal Alaskan communities and to evaluate methods to mitigate that risk. This paper conducts use-inspired science to evaluate the current and future flood exposure of roads in Hooper Bay, Alaska, proposes a unit cost of flood exposure to estimate the cost of flooding, and compares various mitigation efforts including elevating roads and building dikes. Nine historic storms and their associated flood depths were subject to return-period analysis and modeled for several sea level rise scenarios. Based on the simulated road flood exposure (km hours/storm), and the storm-return period, an annual flood exposure (km hours/year) was computed. Then, the unit cost of flood exposure (USD/km hours) was determined as the ratio of the cost of flood mitigation (USD/year) to the annual flood exposure mitigated by the project. The analysis found that the unit cost of flood exposure, in conjunction with flood exposure calculations, does provide an approximate flood risk calculation, though a unitized cost of flood exposure needs to be divided into lump sum costs and materials costs. The analysis also found that dikes may be a more cost-effective alternative than road elevation. The flood risk calculation, based on the unit cost of flood exposure, could be made for all of the communities in a given region to identify those communities that face a high flood risk. Furthermore, if one divides the unit cost of flood exposure by the population, one obtains a cost/benefit ratio that potentially could be used to prioritize flood mitigation work. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 10 3 406
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language English
topic Alaska coastal flooding
Alaska flood risk estimation and mitigation
Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering
VM1-989
Oceanography
GC1-1581
spellingShingle Alaska coastal flooding
Alaska flood risk estimation and mitigation
Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering
VM1-989
Oceanography
GC1-1581
Anna Christina Miller
Thomas Michael Ravens
Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay
topic_facet Alaska coastal flooding
Alaska flood risk estimation and mitigation
Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering
VM1-989
Oceanography
GC1-1581
description Rising waters and land subsidence are increasing relative sea levels in western and northern Alaska, forcing communities to relocate or armor in place. To appropriately plan and make equitable decisions, there is a need to forecast the risk of flood exposure in coastal Alaskan communities and to evaluate methods to mitigate that risk. This paper conducts use-inspired science to evaluate the current and future flood exposure of roads in Hooper Bay, Alaska, proposes a unit cost of flood exposure to estimate the cost of flooding, and compares various mitigation efforts including elevating roads and building dikes. Nine historic storms and their associated flood depths were subject to return-period analysis and modeled for several sea level rise scenarios. Based on the simulated road flood exposure (km hours/storm), and the storm-return period, an annual flood exposure (km hours/year) was computed. Then, the unit cost of flood exposure (USD/km hours) was determined as the ratio of the cost of flood mitigation (USD/year) to the annual flood exposure mitigated by the project. The analysis found that the unit cost of flood exposure, in conjunction with flood exposure calculations, does provide an approximate flood risk calculation, though a unitized cost of flood exposure needs to be divided into lump sum costs and materials costs. The analysis also found that dikes may be a more cost-effective alternative than road elevation. The flood risk calculation, based on the unit cost of flood exposure, could be made for all of the communities in a given region to identify those communities that face a high flood risk. Furthermore, if one divides the unit cost of flood exposure by the population, one obtains a cost/benefit ratio that potentially could be used to prioritize flood mitigation work.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Anna Christina Miller
Thomas Michael Ravens
author_facet Anna Christina Miller
Thomas Michael Ravens
author_sort Anna Christina Miller
title Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay
title_short Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay
title_full Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay
title_fullStr Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Coastal Road Flood Risk in Arctic Alaska, a Case Study from Hooper Bay
title_sort assessing coastal road flood risk in arctic alaska, a case study from hooper bay
publisher MDPI AG
publishDate 2022
url https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030406
https://doaj.org/article/7dc96e34ab2045829ef7ed833e5f429c
geographic Arctic
geographic_facet Arctic
genre Arctic
Alaska
genre_facet Arctic
Alaska
op_source Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Vol 10, Iss 406, p 406 (2022)
op_relation https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/10/3/406
https://doaj.org/toc/2077-1312
doi:10.3390/jmse10030406
2077-1312
https://doaj.org/article/7dc96e34ab2045829ef7ed833e5f429c
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030406
container_title Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
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container_issue 3
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