Sea-level rise is causing saltwater to move from coastal marshes and tidal creeks inland over forests and croplands.
It has been widely documented that Delaware is highly vulnerable to the impacts of coastal flooding along its Delaware Bay, Atlantic Ocean, and Delaware Inland Bay shores.
John Callahan presented on several ongoing CEOE projects that focus on the monitoring of the tides and storm surge, such as from water level tide gages and satellite imagery, as well as on past data analysis and future forecasts. The presentation also included a live demonstration of the Delaware Coastal Flood Monitoring System. The operational and research-based projects are being jointly conducted by the Delaware Geological Survey, Delaware Sea Grant, the Delaware Environmental Observing System, the Delaware Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Center and the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Delaware Coastal Programs.
This project will study the water level behavior throughout the Delaware Inland Bays, with a focus on populated areas, during times of both storm and non-storm events through analysis of observational data from tide gages. It will also support the inclusion of the Delaware Inland Bays into the Delaware CFMS by developing a statistical relationships between the water levels along the Atlantic Ocean coast near the mouth of the Inland B
John Callahan, of the Delaware Geological Survey, presented a talk on "Analysis of Tides and Storm Surge from Observations Records in the Delaware Inland Bays", at the Coastal GeoTools conference (http://coastalgeotools.org/) in Charleston, SC, sponsored by NOAA and Association of State Floodplain Managers.
4:37 p.m., Oct. 31, 2012--The Office of the State Climatologist and the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS), both based at the University of Delaware, provided the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and the National Weather Service with weather, coastal flooding and stream flooding information for Delaware during Hurricane Sandy.
Hurricane Sandy was a major storm event for the tidal areas of Delaware. As a part of the mission of the Delaware Geological Survey, we have compiled preliminary data related to Delaware tide and stream levels related to the Hurricane Sandy and compared them with previous flooding records.
