Understanding the effects of storm surge in hurricane-prone regions is necessary for protecting public and lifeline services and improving resilience. The infrastructure systems comprising a coastal community are the result of engineering design decisions that define its characteristics and subsequently determine its overall ability to respond to surge events. While coastal ocean hydrodynamic models like ADCIRC may be used for assessment, the computational cost is prohibitive since many local changes corresponding to design and failure scenarios would ideally be considered.

In this talk, a computationally efficient approach is presented that enables local assessment for any change under consideration, such as the failure of a levee or the re-nourishment of beaches and dunes. Descriptions of the overall methodology, performance results, and accuracy, as well as case studies, are presented.