Abstract:
Coastal flooding due to tropical cyclone generated
storm surges has caused considerable damage and loss of life in
the North Indian Ocean region including in Sri Lanka. This
paper is concerned with a deterministic analysis of the storm
surge hazard for the city of Chilaw on the west coast of Sri
Lanka, as a case study. The present hazard assessment utilizes a
database of historical events of tropical cyclones in the North
Indian Ocean region. A statistical analysis of the past events has
been carried out to identify an appropriate storm surge scenario.
Numerical models comprising a parametric cyclone model and a
hydrodynamic model based on shallow water equations have
been employed to simulate cyclone wind velocity and pressure
fields as well as coastal inundation due to the storm surges. The
spatial distribution of the depth of inundation as well as maps of
the hazard to population and residential buildings in the study
area are presented and discussed.
