In 2012 Hurricane Sandy caused over $250,000,000 in damage to New Jersey Transit’s built infrastructure ranging from rolling stock to electrical substations to terminals and stations. One of the outcomes of this experience was the identified need to develop a better means by which storm events could be forecast early enough at a detailed level to proactively implement protective measures that would mitigate or limit the damage. As a result, BEM was tasked with developing a real-time Coastal Storm Surge Emergency Warning System (CSSEWS), which would provide enough advanced notice to enact protective measures without prematurely shutting down the rail system. This web-based system was developed in a partnership with Esri using their ArcGIS platform, and will provide NJ TRANSIT with a visualization platform and tool to support critical decisions in advance of projected storm surge events for the Hoboken Terminal and Yard and the Meadows Maintenance Complex (MMC) located in Kearny, New Jersey. Other system-wide critical assets could also be included. The three key functions of the system are to:
- Process multiple reliable sources of hydrological and meteorological data on the timing, extent, and intensity of storm events
- Predict storm surge levels for specific assets up to 96 hours in advance, which are then modeled to determine flood inundation levels at one-foot increments
- Support NJ TRANSIT’s Office Emergency Management and various rail and facility operating groups to plan and implement actions, identified in their respective Storm Loss Mitigation Plans, to protect critical assets
The CSSEWS currently relies on forecasts from NOAA and the New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System (NYHOPS), which was developed and maintained by the Stevens Institute of Technology in Jersey City, NJ. The Hoboken Terminal pilot system will be tested and deployed during the summer in advance of the 2016 hurricane season. Over the next year, Stevens is refining their regional hydrologic forecast modeling to improve their predictive capability (accuracy), increasing the forecast time from 72 to 84 hours. They are adding 26 monitoring stations and precipitation forecasts to increase model performance, and will be able to provide water elevation data as a GIS surface rather than point readings. As these more accurate data inputs are developed, the CSSEWS will incorporate them into projections.
CSSEWS Operations Dashboard
