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| NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer | |
|---|---|
| Name | NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer |
| Developer | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
| Released | 2014 |
| Latest release | ongoing updates |
| Platform | Web-based GIS |
| License | Public domain / government works |
NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer The NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer is an interactive, web-based mapping application created to visualize potential coastal inundation and sea level rise impacts for the United States and territories. It integrates geospatial datasets to show projected water levels, tidal zones, and potential land inundation under scenarios tied to scientific assessments, providing planners and the public with a visual decision-support resource. The Viewer complements national assessments and planning efforts by agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Environmental Protection Agency.
The Viewer displays modeled sea level scenarios alongside observed tide gauge records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Water Level Observation Network and long-term records such as those compiled by the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. It links coastal elevation data from Light Detection and Ranging surveys and topographic sources used by the United States Geological Survey and National Aeronautics and Space Administration missions like ICESat and ICESat-2. The interface overlays local administrative boundaries including county and state extents, critical infrastructure layers such as ports (e.g., Port of New Orleans, Port of Los Angeles), and natural resources like Everglades National Park and Chesapeake Bay.
The Viewer uses elevation and inundation modeling approaches grounded in regional sea level projections from NOAA technical reports and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments. It incorporates digital elevation models derived from LIDAR campaigns coordinated by state coastal programs and federal partners including the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Water level inputs combine astronomical tide constituents with estimates of mean sea level change, storm surge climatology from datasets like SLOSH, and probabilistic projections informed by published scenarios such as the Representative Concentration Pathways used by the IPCC. Geospatial processing translates these inputs into raster surfaces representing potential inundation extents, relying on tools and standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium and software ecosystems exemplified by ArcGIS and QGIS workflows.
Key features include selectable sea level rise scenarios, temporal sliders to animate change through years, and overlay toggles for inundation depth, high-tide flooding, and storm-surge combined scenarios. Users can query impacts on assets such as Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zones, National Register of Historic Places entries, and transportation corridors including the Interstate Highway System and major airports like John F. Kennedy International Airport. Export functions support printable maps and data downloads compatible with GIS platforms from vendors like Esri. The Viewer also integrates contextual informational panels referencing reports by agencies such as the U.S. Global Change Research Program and guidance from the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.
Municipal planners in cities like Miami, New York City, and Seattle use the Viewer for hazard assessments, siting of protective infrastructure, and adaptation planning aligned with policies from entities like the Department of Housing and Urban Development and state coastal commissions. Researchers at institutions such as Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory reference the Viewer to communicate scenario impacts in outreach and vulnerability studies. Nonprofits including The Nature Conservancy and Trust for Public Land use outputs to prioritize conservation and restoration near estuaries like San Francisco Bay and Pamlico Sound.
Critiques emphasize that the Viewer represents a "bathtub" approximation in some modes, omitting dynamic hydrodynamic feedbacks documented in studies from University of Miami and University of California, Santa Cruz. Accuracy depends on underlying elevation data quality; areas with outdated LIDAR or subsidence data—such as parts of Louisiana and Alaska—may be misrepresented. Scholars citing work from Columbia University and Plymouth Marine Laboratory stress uncertainties in ice-sheet collapse projections used by the IPCC, affecting high-end scenarios. Users and agencies such as FEMA caution against treating Viewer outputs as definitive flood insurance or regulatory maps.
Initial development began within NOAA partnerships with coastal states and academic collaborators, releasing a public prototype in 2014 and evolving through subsequent updates tied to national assessments like the Fourth National Climate Assessment. Enhancements incorporated user feedback from workshops with stakeholders including state coastal zone management programs, tribal governments, and federal partners such as the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Technical refinements paralleled advances in remote sensing from missions like Landsat and Sentinel and methodological guidance from the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program.
The Viewer complements other tools such as the Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Viewer from regional consortia, local resilience platforms like Resilient Boston Harbor, and federal datasets accessible via the Digital Coast platform. It interoperates with data services from Esri ArcGIS Online, leverages metadata standards promoted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee, and is often linked in planning portals alongside guidance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and model outputs from research centers like NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
Category:Climate change tools