Pluvial and potential compound flooding in a coupled coastal modeling framework: New York City during post-tropical Cyclone Ida (2021)

Kasaei, Shima; Orton, Philip M.; Ralston, David K.; Warner, John C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2043-2025

Articles | Volume 29, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2043-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2043-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 29, issue 8

Research article

|

23 Apr 2025

Research article |

| 23 Apr 2025

Pluvial and potential compound flooding in a coupled coastal modeling framework: New York City during post-tropical Cyclone Ida (2021)

Shima Kasaei, Philip M. Orton, David K. Ralston, and John C. Warner

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2043-2025-supplement

Data sets

Post-tropical cyclone Ida (2021) flood map for New York City's Jamaica Bay watershed Shima Kasaei et al. https://doi.org/10.17632/hs2zt6ngwd.1

Model data Shima Kasaei and Philip Orton https://doi.org/10.17632/3tz69prrwv.1

North American Mesoscale (NAM) Analysis Data NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds/catalog/model-nam218/202108/20210828/catalog.html

Short-Term Network: Flood Event Viewer for Hurricane Ida U.S. Geological Survey https://stn.wim.usgs.gov/FEV/#2021Ida

National Water Information System (NWIS) Mapper U.S. Geological Survey https://maps.waterdata.usgs.gov/mapper/index.html

High Water Reports MyCoast New York https://mycoast.org/search-reports?state=ny&fwp_categories=highwater

Model code and software

COAWST USGS https://code.usgs.gov/coawstmodel/COAWST

Short summary

Coastal urban areas are highly prone to flooding from rainfall, storm surge, and the combination of both. We improve a coastal model and use it to quantify flooding from Hurricane Ida in the Jamaica Bay watershed of New York City (NYC), creating a flood map and flooded area estimation. Experiments with shifted storm tracks and rainfall timing at high tide show that Ida, already the worst rainfall in NYC, could have been worse. This highlights the area's vulnerability and the need for thorough flood risk analysis.