Sea level rise and extremes in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf

The objective of this project is to provide a comprehensive understanding and long-term climate projections of extreme sea levels and sea level rise in the RS and AG. The project will specifically focus on: (i) identifying drivers of extreme sea level events (surges) and quantifying their relative contributions, (ii) mapping the space-time patterns and variability of sea level surges, (iii) evaluating the present rates of sea level rise and quantifying the role of various forcing factors, (iv) predicting the future sea-level rise and the relative contributions of various driving factors, (v) analyzing changes in sea level surges, and (vi) developing an atlas of historical sea level extreme and changes together with risk maps of predicted sea level conditions will be developed and made available through a visualization interface to make this information available in real time to Saudi Aramco.

The proposed work will be conducted by performing the following tasks:

• Assemble a database of available sea level observations in the RS and AG.
• Implement high-resolution hydrodynamic models for simulating sea levels in the RS and AG.
• Validate the outputs of the developed models with the observations.
• Simulate sea levels and extremes in the present and future climate.
• Characterize the extreme sea levels in the RS and AG including frequencies and drivers etc.
• Quantify the role of various forcing factors driving sea level rise and extremes in the present climate.
• Map extreme sea levels along the RS and AG coastlines.
• Incorporate the generated sea level information into an online visualization interface.