Modeling the effects of seiche events in Lake Erie on Buffalo River flooding

Session: Poster Session

Angshuman M Saharia, University at Buffalo, [email protected]
ZHENDUO ZHU, University at Buffalo, SUNY, [email protected]
Ali Farhadzadeh, Stony Brook University, [email protected]
Joseph Atkinson, University of Buffalo, Dept. of Civil , Struct. & Env Eng., [email protected]

Abstract

The Great Lakes basin is expected to have more powerful, more frequent and longer duration storms due to climate change. Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes, is well-known for its high storm surges and low-frequency oscillations, also known as seiches, following a strong wind blowing along the lake longer axis from Toledo in the southwest toward Buffalo in the northeast. As the Buffalo River is connected to Lake Erie, seiche events can cause flooding in the Buffalo River and nearby area. This study considers extreme seiche events and different inflows in the Buffalo River, to understand the effects of Lake Erie seiche events on flooding in the Buffalo River. The Buffalo River hydrodynamic model is developed using the three-dimensional open-source package, Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC). The numerical simulations will help understanding seiche-induced water level variations and current patterns and their contributions to riverine sediment transport. The results of the study are useful for understanding the extent and distribution of flooding due to in-lake extreme events in the Buffalo area.