Assessment of Coastal Compound Flooding in Tropical Catchment: Saltwater Creek Catchment in Australia

Sher Bahadur Gurung; Robert J Wasson; Michael I Bird; Ben Jarihani

doi:10.3390/land14091898

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Assessment of Coastal Compound Flooding in Tropical Catchment: Saltwater Creek Catchment in Australia

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Assessment of Coastal Compound Flooding in Tropical Catchment: Saltwater Creek Catchment in Australia

Sher Bahadur Gurung, Robert J Wasson, Michael I Bird and Ben Jarihani

Land, Vol.14(9), pp.1-28

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land14091898

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Abstract

compound flooding

hydrodynamic model

tropical climate

coastal inundation

climate change

Compound flooding in coastal tropical cities is becoming increasingly prominent, driven by extreme rainfall events and sea level rise, under a changing climate. Quantifying the impact of these events is limited due to a lack of long-term data and funding and the need for advanced computational tools. To address this issue, this study employed a coupled one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic model for the Saltwater Creek catchment in tropical north Queensland, Australia. In total, eight scenarios with compounding effects were assessed: four under the current climate (CC) and four under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5. Under CC, the compound flooding event inundated almost 3% to 18% of the area conditions. This condition is further exacerbated under the RCP 8.5 climate change scenario, expanding the area flooded by 2% to 7% by 2090. The site experiences inundation up to 4.6 m at low-lying locations and extreme velocities up to 4 m/s at the upstream catchment with high flooding risk. The results suggest that this catchment requires an integrated approach to flood mitigation to meet the challenges posed by climate change, but careful consideration is required in interpreting the results. The results can be further improved by adopting higher-resolution and longer datasets for modelling, as well as considering land use change under the climate change scenarios.

Details

Title: Assessment of Coastal Compound Flooding in Tropical Catchment: Saltwater Creek Catchment in Australia
Authors: Sher Bahadur Gurung - James Cook University
Robert J Wasson - James Cook University
Michael I Bird - James Cook University
Ben Jarihani (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Publication details: Land, Vol.14(9), pp.1-28
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.3390/land14091898
ISSN: 2073-445X
Copyright note: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Data Availability: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Grant note: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of James Cook University and the International Research Training Program (IRTPS-081386F) for funding this research. Additionally, the authors would like to recognise the Cairns Regional Council (PD23041 Saltwater Creek Flood Mitigation Project) and the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science for funding this project. Furthermore, the authors would also like to thank the Hunter Research Grant [00117J] for providing additional funds to purchase the software tools.
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991163845502621
Output Type: Journal article

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