Extreme Storm Surge estimation and projection through the Metastatistical Extreme Value Distribution

Abstract. Accurate estimates of the probability of extreme sea levels are pivotal for assessing risk and the design of coastal defense structures. This probability is typically estimated by modelling observed sea-level records using one of a few statistical approaches. In this study we comparatively apply the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution, based on Block Maxima (BM) and Peak-Over-Threshold (POT) formulations, and the recently Metastatistical Extreme Value Distribution (MEVD) to four long time series of sea-level observations distributed along European coastlines. A cross-validation approach, dividing available data in separate calibration and test sub-samples, is used to compare their performances in high-quantile estimation. To address the limitations posed by the length of the observational time series, we quantify the estimation uncertainty associated with different calibration sample sizes, from 5 to 30 years. Focusing on events with a high return period, we find that the GEV-based approaches and MEVD perform similarly when considering short samples (5 years), while the MEVD estimates outperform the traditional methods when longer calibration sample sizes (10-30 years) are considered. We then investigate the influence of sea-level rise through 2100 on storm surges frequencies. The projections indicate an increase in the height of storm surges for a fixed return period that are spatially heterogeneous across the coastal locations explored.