scholarly journals Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Wastewater Treatment Plants under Extreme Storm Events: A Case Study for New York City, United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6694
Author(s):  
Qing Sun ◽  
Rouzbeh Nazari ◽  
Maryam Karimi ◽  
MD Golam Rabbani Fahad ◽  
Robert W. Peters
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
New York ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Flood Risk Assessment

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the City of New York, United States, are particularly vulnerable to frequent extreme weather events, including storm surges, high-intensity rainfall, and sea level rise, and are also affected by the cascade of these events. The complex structural configuration of WWTPs requires very fine-scale flood risk assessment, which current research has not pursued. We propose a robust technique to quantify the risk of inundations for the fourteen WWPTs through an automated sub-basin creation tool; 889 sub-basins were generated and merged with high-resolution building footprint data to create a comprehensive database for flood inundation analysis. The inundation depths and extents for the WWTPs and flood-prone regions were identified from hydrodynamic modeling of storm surge and sea level rise. The economic damage due to flooding for the WWTPs was also quantified using the HAZUS-MH model. Results indicated that the storm surges from various categories of hurricanes have the dominant impacts on flood depths around WWTPs, followed by high-intensity rainfall. Sea level rise was shown to have a relatively minor impact on flood depths. Results from economic damage analysis showed that the WWTPs are subjected to damage ranging from USD 60,000 to 720,000, depending on the size of the WWTP and the extremity of storm surge. The method of analyzing the inundation status of the research object through the sub-basin enables more accurate data to be obtained when calculating the runoff. It allows for a clearer view of the inundation status of the WWTPs when combined with the actual buildings. Using this database, predicting flood conditions of any extreme event or a cascade of extreme events can be conducted quickly and accurately.

scholarly journals Impact of climate change on New York City’s coastal flood hazard: Increasing flood heights from the preindustrial to 2300 CE

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (45) ◽  
pp. 11861-11866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andra J. Garner ◽  
Michael E. Mann ◽  
Kerry A. Emanuel ◽  
Robert E. Kopp ◽  
Ning Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
York City ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Cmip5 Models ◽  
Tidal Level

The flood hazard in New York City depends on both storm surges and rising sea levels. We combine modeled storm surges with probabilistic sea-level rise projections to assess future coastal inundation in New York City from the preindustrial era through 2300 CE. The storm surges are derived from large sets of synthetic tropical cyclones, downscaled from RCP8.5 simulations from three CMIP5 models. The sea-level rise projections account for potential partial collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet in assessing future coastal inundation. CMIP5 models indicate that there will be minimal change in storm-surge heights from 2010 to 2100 or 2300, because the predicted strengthening of the strongest storms will be compensated by storm tracks moving offshore at the latitude of New York City. However, projected sea-level rise causes overall flood heights associated with tropical cyclones in New York City in coming centuries to increase greatly compared with preindustrial or modern flood heights. For the various sea-level rise scenarios we consider, the 1-in-500-y flood event increases from 3.4 m above mean tidal level during 1970–2005 to 4.0–5.1 m above mean tidal level by 2080–2100 and ranges from 5.0–15.4 m above mean tidal level by 2280–2300. Further, we find that the return period of a 2.25-m flood has decreased from ∼500 y before 1800 to ∼25 y during 1970–2005 and further decreases to ∼5 y by 2030–2045 in 95% of our simulations. The 2.25-m flood height is permanently exceeded by 2280–2300 for scenarios that include Antarctica’s potential partial collapse.

scholarly journals Sea Level Rise Threatens Hundreds of Wastewater Treatment Plants

Eos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Underwood
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Untreated Sewage

Untreated sewage could affect 5 times more people than direct flooding, a new study shows.

Geospatial Risk Assessment of Marine Terminal Infrastructure to Storm Surge Inundation and Sea Level Rise

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (11) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
George M. McLeod ◽  
Thomas R. Allen ◽  
Joshua G. Behr
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Storm Surge ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Rapid Screening ◽  
Tidal Flooding ◽  
The Future

Planning resiliency and sustainability of port operations and critical infrastructure requires risk assessment of storm surge exposure and potential sea level rise. An approach for rapid, screening-level assessment is developed to estimate the current and future risk of exposure to severe storm surges posed to marine terminal facilities in Norfolk, Virginia. The approach estimates the vertical elevation of local mean sea level fifty years into the future and attendant increases in potential storm surge heights. Inundation models are designed for baseline water levels and storm surges for category 1–3 hurricanes across five precautionary future sea level rise scenarios. In addition, tidal flooding poses an emerging threat because sea level rise will also force tides to higher elevations, suggesting that today’s extreme high tides may be the future mean high tide and today’s “nuisance” tidal flooding may in the future recur with chronic regularity. Potential tidal flooding levels are also modeled for each sea level scenario. This approach allows a port to assess relative risk tolerance across the range from lesser to more severe flooding events. Maps and tabular information in linked scenarios are used to summarize the extent, pattern, and depth of potential flooding. The methodology and data developed in this study may be applied to inform the timing and placement of planned assets and can be leveraged in the broader pursuit of optimization in support of long-term master planning at marine terminals.

scholarly journals Economic damages from Hurricane Sandy attributable to sea level rise caused by anthropogenic climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Strauss ◽  
Philip M. Orton ◽  
Klaus Bittermann ◽  
Maya K. Buchanan ◽  
Daniel M. Gilford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
East Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hurricane Sandy ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Sea Levels

AbstractIn 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States, creating widespread coastal flooding and over $60 billion in reported economic damage. The potential influence of climate change on the storm itself has been debated, but sea level rise driven by anthropogenic climate change more clearly contributed to damages. To quantify this effect, here we simulate water levels and damage both as they occurred and as they would have occurred across a range of lower sea levels corresponding to different estimates of attributable sea level rise. We find that approximately $8.1B ($4.7B–$14.0B, 5th–95th percentiles) of Sandy’s damages are attributable to climate-mediated anthropogenic sea level rise, as is extension of the flood area to affect 71 (40–131) thousand additional people. The same general approach demonstrated here may be applied to impact assessments for other past and future coastal storms.

scholarly journals Occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Six Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants at the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic in The United States

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 798
Author(s):  
Samendra P. Sherchan ◽  
Shalina Shahin ◽  
Jeenal Patel ◽  
Lauren M. Ward ◽  
Sarmila Tandukar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secondary Effluent ◽  
Untreated Wastewater ◽  
Treatment Processes ◽  
Wastewater Samples

In this study, we investigated the occurrence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in primary influent (n = 42), secondary effluent (n = 24) and tertiary treated effluent (n = 34) collected from six wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs A–F) in Virginia (WWTP A), Florida (WWTPs B, C, and D), and Georgia (WWTPs E and F) in the United States during April–July 2020. Of the 100 wastewater samples analyzed, eight (19%) untreated wastewater samples collected from the primary influents contained SARS-CoV-2 RNA as measured by reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. SARS-CoV-2 RNA were detected in influent wastewater samples collected from WWTP A (Virginia), WWTPs E and F (Georgia) and WWTP D (Florida). Secondary and tertiary effluent samples were not positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA indicating the treatment processes in these WWTPs potentially removed SARS-CoV-2 RNA during the secondary and tertiary treatment processes. However, further studies are needed to understand the log removal values (LRVs) and transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 RNA through analyzing wastewater samples from a wider range of WWTPs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document