Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer
Features
- Displays potential future sea levels
- Provides simulations of sea level rise at local landmarks
- Communicates the spatial uncertainty of mapped sea levels
- Models potential marsh migration due to sea level rise
- Overlays social and economic data onto potential sea level rise
- Examines how tidal flooding will become more frequent with sea level rise
Overview
Being able to visualize potential impacts from sea level rise is a powerful teaching and planning tool, and the Sea Level Rise Viewer brings this capability to coastal communities. A slider bar is used to show how various levels of sea level rise will impact coastal communities. Additional coastal counties will be added in the near future. Maps are not available for Alaska due to elevation data accuracy and vertical datum transformation gaps.
Acknowledgements
The NOAA Coastal Services Center would like to acknowledge those organizations that provided direct content used in this tool or feedback, ideas, and reviews over the course of the tool’s development. Specifically the Center would like to acknowledge the following groups.
The U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with the Center on the development of two previous sea level rise mapping tools, one in Wilmington, Delaware, and one in Mississippi and Alabama. The lessons learned from these pilots led to the enhancement of the mapping methods and visual display used in this tool.
The Delaware Coastal Management Program provided content to and feedback on the development of the first of the pilots.
State Sea Grant programs―specifically Mississippi-Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina―provided valuable feedback on the development of the second pilot, content on the explanation of sea level rise, and grants for developing and providing Social Vulnerability Index data.
Attendees of the Sea Level Rise and Inundation Community Workshop, Landsdowne, Virginia, December 3-5, 2009.
Culver, M. E., J. R. Schubel, M.A. Davidson, J. Haines, and K.C. Texeira (editors). 2010. Proceedings from the Sea Level Rise and Inundation Community Workshop, Lansdowne, Virginia, December 3-5, 2009. Sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey.
The University of South Carolina Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute for providing Social Vulnerability Index data.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics for providing the block group analysis of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
The North Carolina Sea Level Rise study team for providing a good forum for discussion of new sea-level-rise risk assessment techniques.
NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services for providing 3-year water level analysis for flood frequency content.
Special thanks are also extended to the NOAA Digital Coast Partnership for providing comments on the alpha review of the tool. The Nature Conservancy in particular provided helpful input on mapping-confidence methods and marsh migration results.