The protective benefits of tsunami mitigation parks and ramifications for their strategic design

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-19-2020

Abstract

Nature-based solutions are becoming an increasingly important component of sustainable coastal risk management. For particularly destructive hazards like tsunamis, natural elements like vegetation are often combined with designed elements like seawalls or dams to augment the protective benefits of each component. One example of this kind of hybrid approach is the so-called tsunami mitigation park, which combines a designed hillscape with vegetation. Despite the increasing popularity of tsunami mitigation parks, the protective benefits they provide are poorly understood and incompletely quantified. As a consequence of this lack of understanding, current designs might not maximize the protective benefits of tsunami mitigation parks. Here, we numerically model the interactions between a single row of hills with an incoming tsunami to identify the mechanisms through which the park protects the coast. We initialize the tsunami as an N wave that propagates to shore and impacts the coast directly. We find that partial reflection of the incoming wave is the most important mechanism by which hills reduce the kinetic energy that propagates onshore. The protective benefit of tsunami mitigation parks is thus comparable to that of a small wall, at least for tsunamis with amplitudes that are comparable to the hill height. We also show that hills could elevate potential damage in the immediate vicinity of the hills where flow speeds increase compared to a planar beach, suggesting the need to include a buffer zone behind the hills into a strategic park design.

Identifier

85084963847 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1911857117

e-ISSN

10916490

ISSN

00278424

PubMed ID

32366652

First Page

10740

Last Page

10745

Issue

20

Volume

117

Grant

PE-0602435N

Fund Ref

National Science Foundation

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