COASTAL STORM SURGE DETENTION


This function is listed separately from Surface Water Detention to highlight the importance of tidal wetlands and adjacent lowland wetlands at storing tidal waters brought into estuaries by storms (e.g., tropical storms and hurricanes). Estuarine and freshwater tidal wetlands are important areas for temporary storage of this water. Some nontidal wetlands contiguous to these wetlands (e.g., low-lying terrene outflow basins - flatwoods) may also provide this function, but do so only during the most extreme storm events, so they were rated as moderate for this function. Note that tidal wetlands along rivers may also be important for attenuating freshwater floodwaters resulting from heavy precipitation events upstream in the watershed.


For this function, the following relationships are used:

High

Estuarine Basin, Estuarine Fringe, Estuarine Island, Lotic Tidal Fringe, Lotic Tidal Island, Lotic Tidal Floodplain, Marine Fringe, Marine Island






Moderate

Other tidal wetlands not included above plus any Terrene wetland (excluding SL – slope wetland) with “ed” modifier (nontidal wetlands contiguous with estuarine wetlands discharging and likely subject to infrequent or occasional flooding by storm tides) or with “ow” modifier (overwash)



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