COASTAL FLOODING DUE TO EPISODIC SEA LEVEL ELEVATION AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF INUNDATED URBAN AREAS IN MIAMI (SOUTH FLORIDA, USA)

The variability of nearshore Sea Level Elevation (SLE) is a key indicator of global-scale climatic changes with significant impacts on low-lying coastal areas. As such, South Florida (USA) is one of the most vulnerable regions worldwide to episodic coastal inundation due to extreme sea levels caused by tropical storms and hurricanes. Specifically, the natural and urban coastal environment in and around Miami (FL) is a hotspot for climate-related adverse effects (Kourafalou et al., 2024). Severe storm surge has impacted the study region’s low- land littoral areas in the past by inundating coastal floodplains and exposed urban settings. Especially when storm surge coincides with high tides (storm tides) enhanced further by the recent mean Sea Level Rise (SLR), it can cause land loss, coastal erosion, damages on onshore infrastructure and properties, human casualties, degradation of coastal ecosystems, etc. In this paper, we present recent developments of a numerical modelling system for coastal inundation (Makris et al., 2023a) induced by extreme SLE due to storm surge, intensified by high astronomical tides and SLR that was set up for the Mediterranean Sea’s coasts (Androulidakis et al., 2023a); it is hereby expanded to fit the needs for our investigation in the Miami study area.