Background
Coastal managers concerned with environmental policy and ecological management are increasingly calling upon scientists and academia to provide information on sea-level rise. Toward this, the NOAA-supported North Carolina Ecological Effects of Sea-Level Rise (NCEESLR) project measured processes and rates of relative sea-level rise, producing important baselines and model simulations to enable first-order estimates of wetlands responses to sea-level rise. A variety of maps, shoreline and wetland erosion and accretion trends, and site and regional observations of processes and estuarine system evolution were developed. In order to support and enable coastal managers seeking to develop policy, educate, or promote climate adaptation, this project assimilates results from the NCEESLR project and augments the products with analytical visualization and geospatial tools. The overall goal of this project is to provide information and practical tools to enhance coastal ecological management and decision-making for ecological restoration, shoreline erosion abatement (e.g., living shoreline site suitability), and planning for sustainability of wetlands undergoing sea-level transgression.
Sea Level Rise Inundation Vulnerability for Eastern NC
Work Plan
The project collaboratively develops and implements sea-level rise geospatial tools and visualizations in partnership with State, local, and non-profit organizations. Products include a continuum of visualization sophistication, from simple, static maps to dynamic, interactive data.
This project will produce a portfolio of NC EESLR products for managers and researchers:
- Website portal for interactive SLR mapping, including digital historical shorelines, inlets, and erosion rates from across the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System.
- Documentation of map and toolkit use case scenarios through engagement with collaborating staff of The Nature Conservancy, NC DENR, and local municipal agencies (e.g., site suitability of living shorelines for erosion abatement.)
- Site-specific modeling in the form of prediction of marsh responses, adapting methods and results from prior work on the Marsh Equilibrium Model (MEMII), Sea-Level Affecting Marshes Model, and geospatial inundation models.
The outcome of this will be to provide coastal managers with access to scientific results in a one-stop portal with visualizations and demonstrated use case studies will support their adoption of geospatial data and predictive models for decision-making and planning for sea-level rise. The geovisual tools will enhance broad system understanding of potential impacts and provide landscape and site-specific information (erosion, accretion, hotspots, suitability for abatement and restoration) that have heretofore been unavailable. In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and NC DENR, the project will work closely with interested local officials from the Town of Plymouth and elsewhere to ensure the relevance of the tools and their adoption by planners and decision-makers.
