{"id":143343,"date":"2024-09-30T17:58:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T21:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//?p=143343"},"modified":"2024-09-30T17:58:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T21:58:19","slug":"studying-the-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//studying-the-surge/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343//","title":{"rendered":"Studying the Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

As sea levels rise and coastal areas become increasingly vulnerable to flooding during hurricanes and storms, a UCF researcher is using machine learning to better prepare communities. Thomas Wahl, an associate professor in the UCF Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, studies flood-prone areas through the Costal Risks & Engineering (CoRE) lab. The lab, which Wahl founded, monitors changes in coastal sea levels (mean and extreme), ocean waves, and freshwater flows and the associated impacts. The data is used to support the development of sustainable and resilient adaptation strategies./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343/n

Current projects at the lab focus on storm surges /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343/u2014 particularly the statistical likelihood of events like a hundred-year or 1% chance storm surge in regions close to the water such as Tampa, Cedar Key, New Jersey and others across the globe. The lab uses machine learning modeling techniques to simulate observed and hypothetical flooding scenarios in the studied areas, helping to gather more data and understand how to better protect these cities,. This approach complements traditionally used hydrodynamic models, which solve the processes that contribute to flooding and are computationally very expensive./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343/n

While hurricanes are often associated with high wind speeds, it is often not the biggest concern for the health and safety of residents. Approximately 90% of all deaths in hurricanes worldwide are caused by drowning in either the storm surges or flooding caused by intense rainfall, according to the Florida Climate Center,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343/n

Wahl and his team started working with machine learning during a study a few years ago with NASA to assess how storm surges have changed over the last hundred years in different parts of the world. Using data from NASA satellites, they examined those trends by exploiting the relationship between the wind and pressure field and the resulting storm surge, which is measured by a tide gauge /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343/u2014 a device that measures sea level./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/143343/n