Coastal floods modeling and video observation validation in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

Cartagena de Indias is an important industrial and patrimonial town located on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Sea. The residential districts of Bocagrande and Castillogrande were built on a narrow sandy bar, whose altitude does not exceed 2 m above the mean sea level. This area is extremely sensitive and regularly affected by marine floods. For 70% to 90% of the cases, flooding events are due to wave setup and uprush caused by the wave breaking phenomenon rather than low pressure and wind stress effects. High water levels on the beach result from heavy swells, locally called Mar de leva (MDL), generated by the progression of cold meteorological fronts across the Caribbean Sea. Year 2010 was characterized by three episodes of MDL, causing major marine floods in Bocagrande. The different components of water surface elevation during a storm were studied by modeling the water level during those thre episodes and comparing the results with in situ video observations (HORUS (R) video camera system setup on Cartagena beach). Simulations were carried out by the joint use of models: ADCIRC for barometric tide and wind set-up, SWAN for the wave propagation and the wave induced set-up, and pCOULWAVE for the wave run-up. The results of the simulations are in good accordance with the video observations (R-2=0.97) and illustrate the close relationship between morphological beach profile evolution (erosion) and wave runup (submersion).