Coastal Sector Climate Science and Tools
This tab presents climate science and tools for understanding climate change impacts to the coastal sector and potential adaptation options.
Resources are automatically presented by rating, but can also be sorted by date and title. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by resource type, impact, region, state, or jurisdictional focus.
78 results are shown below.
Filter by States AffectedSelect states to filter this list
All
Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Marianas Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Resource
2009
This site provides the GIS data that was used for the study "State and Local Governments Plan for Development of Most Land Vulnerable to Rising Sea Level along the U. S. Atlantic Coast," published by James Titus. The GIS data are available in three formats: grid, polygon shape files, and vector shape files. This data identifies shoreline development and areas that will be vulnerable to sea level rise. .
Author or Affiliated User: James Titus
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
May 2009
Provided by the California Energy Commission's Climate Change Center, this study includes a detailed analysis of California's infrastructure, property, and current population at risk from projected sea-level rise, as well as the cost of building structural measures to reduce that risk. Specifically, it identifies the risks of flooding and erosion to specific populations, roads, railways, power plants, water treatment plants, ports and airports, emergency and healthcare facilities, wetlands, coastal and San Francisco Bay properties, and groundwater aquifers.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Matthew Heberger, Heather Cooley, Pablo Herrera, Peter H. Gleick, Eli Moore
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
CanVis is a visualization program used to "see" potential impacts from coastal development or sea-level rise. The software allows users to download background pictures and insert objects like hotels, houses, and marinas, and adjust sea level to observe impacts of sea level rise on coastal development. The software is used by municipalities to brainstorm new ideas and policies, undertake project planning, and make presentations. .
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
The Coastal Atlas is an online mapping and planning tool that allows state and local decision-makers to visually analyze and explore data for coastal and ocean planning activities. The site provides shoreline mapping data for shoreline and flood planning in Maryland. The maps are based on erosion, storm inundation and sea level rise data developed from fifty years of observations, and display future shoreline positions up to fifty years in the future. The data available through the Coastal Atlas includes physical characteristics, human uses and ecological resources.
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
This online map displays those areas that will be submerged during high tide as the result of sea- level rise on the Alabama, Mississippi, and part of Florida's coasts Populations, roads, infrastructure (ie., airports) and other viewing options are available to assess the areas at risk of inundation under different scenarios (1 meter, 2,3,4,5).
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
Developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) is computer software that calculates shoreline rate-of-change statistics from multiple shoreline positions to analyze historic shoreline change.
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
Through GreenPrint and Program Open Space, the State of Maryland has established a set of land conservation and acquisition data tools and programs to protect open space, environmental resources, and rural lands to meet statewide ecological objectives. The tools and programs are used to help the state adapt to climate change by removing barriers to the inland migration of coastal ecosystems in response to impacts like sea-level rise and land loss. Specifically, a statewide mapping tool called Maryland GreenPrint, which displays lands and watersheds of high ecological value, supports prioritized and transparent decision making, and increased resilience for vulnerable coastal habitats.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
July 15, 2020
In San Diego, California, the city and various stakeholders are evaluating different land-use and planning alternatives to conserve and restore migrating wetlands in Mission Bay as a part of local decisionmaking processes. To conserve and restore Mission Bay, San Diego Audubon and other partners started an initiative called “ReWild Mission Bay” that evaluated different alternatives for protecting wetlands through a feasibility study. One of the feasibility study’s alternatives aims to relocate Campland on the Bay, an existing RV campground on land owned by the city, inland. By moving Campland on the Bay inland, the city could address wetland migration while providing community resilience and environmental benefits. The alternative to relocate the location for Campland on the Bay, if implemented, would be aligned with and build on other local planning efforts to convert a part of the surrounding Mission Bay Park into a regional amenity that accommodates both public and private uses. In July 2019, the San Diego City Council approved a lease extension and expansion for Campland on the Bay that has delayed any potential implementation of the ReWild Mission Bay wetland alternatives until after the term of the lease expires. The ongoing work in Mission Bay can serve as an example for other coastal jurisdictions addressing the tradeoffs raised in land-use and planning efforts for coastal retreat and the challenges that can arise in balancing competing stakeholder interests to achieve both human and environmental priorities. ReWild Mission Bay also shows how nongovernmental stakeholders can conduct planning processes to help government agencies make decisions about long-term land uses and restoration activities. This case study is one of 17 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Managing the Retreat from Rising Seas: Lessons and Tools from 17 Case Studies.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
2013
In 2013, The Conservation Fund, National Audubon Society, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered to produce a “salt marsh persistence” report for Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) titled Blackwater 2100 to address marsh migration in response to sea-level rise and tidal erosion. The objectives of the report are to identify areas of current tidal marsh most resilient to sea-level rise and of the highest value to salt marsh bird species as well as future locations that may support marsh migration corridors. The report’s authors utilized several tools, including the Sea-Level Rise Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM), to select one of three different adaptation strategies for wetland areas within Blackwater NWR to create a comprehensive management plan. The three adaptation strategies include: (1) in-place restoration actions targeted at improving existing tidal marsh health and productivity; (2) strategic conservation in priority marsh migration corridors; and (3) actions supporting the transition of uplands into marsh. Blackwater 2100 can provide a useful example for natural resources, open space, and coastal managers to plan for minimizing coastal habitat loss due to sea-level rise by evaluating the tradeoffs of different adaptation strategies; and building partnerships with stakeholder groups and the community to examine marsh migration on an ecosystem scale that necessitates public and private land acquisitions and involvement. This case study is one of 17 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Managing the Retreat from Rising Seas: Lessons and Tools from 17 Case Studies.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
2019
The Washington Coastal Resilience Project (WCRP), a partnership between the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, Washington Sea Grant, the Department of Ecology, the Nature Conservancy, and others, produced resources and tools to increase the capacity of communities in Washington state to prepare for sea-level rise. The materials generated through the project include featured data visualizations, tutorials, and guidelines for planning, all of which are designed to better enable the integration of sea-level rise into local planning and investment decisions.
Resource Category: Data and tools
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
