The role of intensifying precipitation on coastal river flooding and compound river-storm surge events, Northeast Gulf of Mexico
This paper explores destructive coastal floods that are commonly increasing in frequency in certain regions and which may be caused by global precipitation intensification. Such connections through climate, watershed, and river processes are poorly understood because of complex interactions in transitional fluvial-marine environments where flooding is caused by rivers, marine storm surge, or both in compound events. To better understand river floods along the fluvial-marine transition, the study focuses on the watersheds of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico using long-term observations.
The results demonstrates changes in climate and climate oscillations can increase the frequency of coastal river flooding through the intensification of inland precipitation. This intensification decreased the lag time of coastal river discharge events, an increase in transport efficiency that caused coastal river discharge to more closely reflect the higher frequency of precipitation. Shorter lag times can also increase the likelihood of compounding with storm surge. Compound flood risk may be limited if extensive inland river flooding delays river flooding in the fluvial-marine transition, making the largest flood hazard along most of the fluvial-marine transition solely from river discharge, as demonstrated here.
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