Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-116
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-116
08 Feb 2023
 | 08 Feb 2023

Leveraging Google’s Tensor Processing Units for tsunami-risk mitigation planning in the Pacific Northwest and beyond

Ian Madden, Simone Marras, and Jenny Suckale

Abstract. Tsunami-risk and flood-risk mitigation planning has particular importance for communities like those of the Pacific Northwest, where coastlines are extremely dynamic and a seismically-active subduction zone looms large. The challenge does not stop here for risk managers: mitigation options have multiplied since communities have realized the viability and benefits of nature-based solutions. To identify suitable mitigation options for their community, risk managers need the ability to rapidly evaluate several different options through fast and accessible tsunami models, but may lack high-performance computing infrastructure. The goal of this work is to leverage the newly developed Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), a high-performance hardware accessible via the Google Cloud framework, to enable the rapid evaluation of different tsunami-risk mitigation strategies available to all communities. We establish a starting point through a numerical solver of the nonlinear shallow-water equations that uses a fifth-order Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory method with the Lax-Friedrichs flux splitting, and a Total Variation Diminishing third-order Runge-Kutta method for time discretization. We verify numerical solutions through several analytical solutions and benchmarks, reproduce several findings about one particular tsunami-risk mitigation strategy, and model tsunami runup at Crescent City, California whose topography comes from a high-resolution Digital Elevation Model. The direct measurements of the simulations performance, energy usage, and ease of execution show that our code could be a first step towards a community-based, user-friendly virtual laboratory that can be run by a minimally trained user on the cloud thanks to the ease of use of the Google Cloud Platform.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

27 Jun 2023
Leveraging Google's Tensor Processing Units for tsunami-risk mitigation planning in the Pacific Northwest and beyond
Ian Madden, Simone Marras, and Jenny Suckale
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 3479–3500, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3479-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3479-2023, 2023
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The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.

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To aid risk managers who may wish to rapidly assess tsunami-risk but may lack high-performance...
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