Methodology for Combining Coastal Design-Flood Levels and Sea-Level Rise Projections

Design-flood levels with associated exceedance probabilities are usually determined for coastal flood protection projects. Rising sea level introduces another design feature that needs to be combined with the design-flood level. However, most sea-level projections do not have exceedance probabilities that can be used in conjunction with the design flood to obtain total flood levels. This paper shows how to combine design-flood levels with sea-level rise projections that have exceedance probabilities, such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, to obtain total elevations at desired exceedance probabilities over particular intervals. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.