Engineering With Nature® (EWN) Toolkit for ERDC’s CSTORM
A toolkit to create and permutate EWN features within the Coastal STORM (CSTORM) modeling framework.
About
USACE Districts require a method for predicting the impact that Engineering With Nature (EWN) features may have on the coastal resiliency of communities, quantifying changes to predicted values of storm surge, inundation, and wave attenuation for various storm events (i.e. 1/100, or 1/1000) if these features were implemented.
Presently, numerical modeling of EWN features requires manual integration into the bathymetry/mesh, entailing a high level of skill and a significant time commitment. Each time the feature is altered, mesh must be rebuilt. Consequently, a limited set of NNBF measures will be implemented numerically for a subset of storm conditions and those effects will be extrapolated to other study regions, increasing the uncertainty of the study conclusions.
The purpose of this project is to include a toolkit to create and permutate EWN features within the Coastal STORM – Modeling System (CSTORM-MS) of numerical models (ADCIRC/STWAVE), allowing Districts to look at variations of design parameters for varying NNBFs without having to modify model bathymetry every time, leading to significant time and cost savings.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/d9d158822ea54af78d9c06d79e4b9be5/resources/EtkkA0LwKufk-hFPams-q.jpeg?w=20)
Objective
The objective of this research task is to develop a EWN CSTORM-MS toolkit that can be implemented to streamline the inclusion of NNBF designs into the USACE numerical modeling process. Accompanying the toolkit will be a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and suggested methods that will allow the user to include EWN feature-based designs with the CSTORM suite of numerical models.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/d9d158822ea54af78d9c06d79e4b9be5/resources/DIH0-UEQrT-rEUC8gK_7Y.png?w=20)
Approach
Capabilities
Example Scenario
Location: Rockaway Peninsula, Long Island, NY
Objective: Reduce flooding during storm events, prevent beach erosion, and create natural habitat to increase biodiversity in the area
Strategy: Implement the following EWN features
- Dune
- Navigation gate
- Wetland consisting of 2 distinct marsh areas
Application: The EWN toolkit is used to add these features to the existing mesh which is then implemented in the CSTORM model to study the effects on hydrodynamics caused by including these features (pictured is the mesh for the marsh)
Slide right to see the mesh without the marsh
Slide left to see the mesh with the marsh
Results: Water surface elevation results before and after adding the marsh.
Slide right to see the water surface elevations without the marsh
Slide left to see the water surface elevations with the marsh
Demonstrations
Resources
The Story
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/d9d158822ea54af78d9c06d79e4b9be5/resources/jAeymnOZCgs2osqoH3PDJ.jpeg?w=20)
| Problem | Solution | Impact |
| Application | Status | Benefits |
Contacts
Amanda Tritinger - Amanda.S.Tritinger@erdc.dren.mil
Chris Massey - Chris.Massey@usace.army.mil