Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Can Restoring Tidal Wetlands Reduce Estuarine Nuisance Flooding of Coasts Under Future Sea‐Level Rise?

Journal Article · · Earth's Future
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF004149· OSTI ID:2586524
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10]
  1. Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  3. Institute for Applied Ecology, Corvallis, OR (United States)
  4. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States)
  5. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  6. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States); Columbia Land Trust (CLT), Vancouver, WA (United States)
  7. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
  8. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)
  9. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Newport, OR (United States). Pacific Ecological Systems Division
  10. Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Wetland restoration is an increasingly popular nature‐based method for flood risk mitigation in coastal communities. In this study, we present a novel method using hydrodynamic modeling and harmonic analysis to quantify wetlands' ability to reduce future nuisance flooding. The method leverages a hydrodynamic model calibrated to present day data and was run for a range of future sea‐level rise (SLR) and wetland restoration scenarios to quantify changes to tidal harmonic amplitudes and phases. The harmonic constituents are used to generate water surface elevations over a time period of interest (e.g., one year) and compared to critical exceedance thresholds such as levee elevations. Then, changes to nuisance flooding are calculated by counting the number of hours critical thresholds are exceeded under different SLR and wetland restoration scenarios. We applied the method to Coos Bay, Oregon, USA as a test case. We found restoration reduces the number of hours nuisance flooding occurs in downtown Coos Bay from 15 hr (present day conditions) to 0 hr (fully restored condition) under median SLR (82 cm by 2100). Restoration had spatially variable impacts on reducing peak flood elevations with minimal impacts near the estuary mouth and greatest impact 32 km inland. The effectiveness of restoration was heavily dependent on future SLR. Restoration was maximally effective in 2050 under all SLR scenarios, less effective in 2100 under median SLR, and not effective under high SLR. Modeling results suggest increased tidal prism and accommodation space are driving restoration‐associated reductions in tidal amplitudes.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2586524
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--190739
Journal Information:
Earth's Future, Journal Name: Earth's Future Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 13; ISSN 2328-4277
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (45)

From the extreme to the mean: Acceleration and tipping points of coastal inundation from sea level rise: SWEET AND PARK journal December 2014
Increased nuisance flooding along the coasts of the United States due to sea level rise: Past and future: INCREASED NUISANCE FLOODING DUE TO SLR journal November 2015
Tidal river dynamics: Implications for deltas: TIDAL RIVER DYNAMICS journal March 2016
Future nuisance flooding at Boston caused by astronomical tides alone: TIDAL FLOODING journal December 2016
Cumulative hazard: The case of nuisance flooding journal February 2017
Mixed populations and annual flood frequency estimates in the western United States: The role of atmospheric rivers: ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS AND WEST UNITE STATES FLOODS journal January 2017
Evolving Understanding of Antarctic Ice‐Sheet Physics and Ambiguity in Probabilistic Sea‐Level Projections journal December 2017
The Influence of Sea Level Rise on the Regional Interdependence of Coastal Infrastructure journal May 2018
Storm-driven particulate organic matter flux connects a tidal tributary floodplain wetland, mainstem river, and estuary journal July 2018
Late Holocene vertical land motion and relative sea‐level changes: lessons from the British Isles journal September 2011
Inequities in the distribution of flood risk under floodplain restoration and climate change scenarios journal January 2022
Partial recovery of microbial function in restored coastal marshes of Oregon, USA journal March 2022
Geospatial habitat change analysis in Pacific Northwest coastal estuaries journal August 2003
Investigation of impact of shoreline alteration on coastal hydrodynamics using Dimension REduced Surrogate based Sensitivity Analysis journal April 2019
Development and validation of a three-dimensional morphological model journal October 2004
Differences in tidal channel network geometry between reference marshes and marshes restored by historical dike breaching journal October 2014
A coupled, two-dimensional hydrodynamic-marsh model with biological feedback journal May 2016
Sensitivity of hurricane surge to morphological parameters of coastal wetlands journal October 2009
The potential of wetlands in reducing storm surge journal January 2010
Future Nuisance Flooding in Norfolk, VA, From Astronomical Tides and Annual to Decadal Internal Climate Variability journal November 2018
What Is Nuisance Flooding? Defining and Monitoring an Emerging Challenge journal July 2018
Floodplain Wetland Channel Planform, Cross‐Sectional Morphology, and Sediment Characteristics Along an Estuarine to Tidal River Gradient journal May 2021
Present and Future Flood Hazard in the Lower Columbia River Estuary: Changing Flood Hazards in the Portland‐Vancouver Metropolitan Area journal June 2020
Controls on Sediment Accretion and Blue Carbon Burial in Tidal Saline Wetlands: Insights From the Oregon Coast, USA journal February 2020
Multi‐Decadal Simulation of Marsh Topography Under Sea Level Rise and Episodic Sediment Loads journal August 2022
Integrated Modeling of Dynamic Marsh Feedbacks and Evolution Under Sea‐Level Rise in a Mesotidal Estuary (Plum Island, MA, USA) journal August 2022
Impacts of a Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake on Water Levels and Wetlands of the Lower Columbia River and Estuary journal July 2023
Tidal wetland stability in the face of human impacts and sea-level rise journal December 2013
Overestimation of marsh vulnerability to sea level rise journal February 2016
Forensic Hydrodynamic Evaluation Following the Restoration of a Tidal Freshwater Wetlands
  • Breithaupt, Stephen; Khangaonkar, Tarang
  • 10th International Conference on Estuarine and Coastal Modeling, Estuarine and Coastal Modeling (2007) https://doi.org/10.1061/40990(324)34
conference April 2012
Total ecosystem carbon stocks at the marine‐terrestrial interface: Blue carbon of the Pacific Northwest Coast, United States journal August 2020
U.S. Pacific coastal wetland resilience and vulnerability to sea-level rise journal February 2018
High-tide flooding disrupts local economic activity journal February 2019
Combined Effects of Wind, Tide, and Horizontal Density Gradients on Stratification in Estuaries and Coastal Seas journal September 2009
Recent and Future Outlooks for Nuisance Flooding Impacts on Roadways on the U.S. East Coast journal March 2018
The Protective Role of Coastal Marshes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis journal November 2011
The Value of Wetlands in Protecting Southeast Louisiana from Hurricane Storm Surges journal March 2013
Modeling Tidal Marsh Distribution with Sea-Level Rise: Evaluating the Role of Vegetation, Sediment, and Upland Habitat in Marsh Resiliency journal February 2014
Dynamic responses and implications to coastal wetlands and the surrounding regions under sea level rise journal October 2018
Responses of Coastal Wetlands to Rising Sea Level journal October 2002
Dataset: Accretion rates and carbon sequestration in Oregon salt marshes dataset January 2024
Identifying priority ecosystem services in tidal wetland restoration journal July 2024
Impact of sea level rise on tidal energy budget in a macro-tidal coastal bay with archipelago journal January 2024
Channel Shallowing as Mitigation of Coastal Flooding journal July 2015
Data from: Can restoring tidal wetlands reduce nuisance flooding of coasts under future sea-level rise? dataset January 2025

Similar Records

Modelling the Effects of Wetland Restoration on Coastal Hydrology: A Case Study of Elkhorn Slough Watershed, California
Journal Article · Sun Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 2025 · Hydrological Processes · OSTI ID:3008761
Climate Change and Changes in Compound Coastal-Riverine Flooding Hazard Along the U.S. Coasts
Journal Article · Sat May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Earth's Future · OSTI ID:1798573

Related Subjects