Earth Data Science
A Climate-Forward Coastal Water Level Model Analysis for Coastal Inundation and Flood Risk Planning (MAPP)
Description
With losses mounting from coastal flooding and associated impacts, better information on present and future coastal flood risk is needed by stakeholders ranging from the military to state and local governments who collectively oversee trillions of dollars of coastal infrastructure; small to large businesses in coastal economies; and roughly half of the US population who live in coastal areas. Available flood risk information is largely limited to present day 1% and 0.2% annual chance flood levels from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program, does not take into account ongoing Sea Level Rise (SLR), and is insufficient for future planning. This project will extend the companion project "Reanalysis" to compute future climate-model based coastal hazards datasets using the ADCIRC storm surge, tide, and wind-wave model. Climate model projections are being analyzed to develop "transfer functions" that can be applied to the current climate conditions and then used to project coastal hazards data into future climates.
RENCI's Role
RENCI leads all aspects of this project.