ANALYZING HURRICANE IRMA’S STORM SURGE IMPACT IN COASTAL EVERGLADES USING HYDROLOGICAL DATA

Recently, the world has yet again seen the life-threatening events caused by hurricanes and their associated storm surges in particular the one from Hurricane Irma, which struck September 10^th, 2017. Storm surge, the rising of the sea water level, is one of many causes of damage during hurricanes. Studies have shown that mangroves forests can shield inhabitants from the effects of a storm surge. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of storm surge during Hurricane Irma (September 10^th, 2017) along the mangrove coastline of Everglades National Park. Four stations were monitored for water depth, water temperature, and water conductivity using pressure transducers. Two stations were located in the open waters of Florida Bay, closer to the direct path of the storm and two in Taylor River Slough, located within a region populated by dwarf (<2m tall) mangroves. The overall depth for the groundwater and surface water increased 50-60cm in the Taylor Slough sites but the Florida Bay sites experienced complete drainage as a result of the storm. The dwarf mangroves in Taylor River Slough provided some buffering of the storm surge events, given that the sea level rose about ½ of their height. The data found in this research provides ground truthing for storm surge models, supports the protection of mangroves as they do provide some buffering from storm surge, and aids in the preparation of Hurricanes.