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Coastal Vulnerability and Adaptation Tools
The following resources are available to coastal resource managers seeking to assess risks and vulnerabilities in planning for climate change impacts.
- Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tools
- Planning Tools
- Examples of Vulnerability Assessments for Coastal Areas
- State Coastal Atlases
Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tools
Software, data, and methodologies for assessing the vulnerability of areas to weather and storm-related stressors will likely prove useful for assessing future climate change impacts.
Coastal Communities and Climate Change: Measuring Future Insurability (PDF) (28 pp, 6.3MB)
This report looks at the impact of climate change on flood risk at a number of coastal locations around the world, considering sea level rise, the effect of wind speed on storm surges, and changes in land use.
FEMA HAZUS Software
HAZUS is risk assessment software for analyzing potential losses from floods, hurricane winds and other disasters. In HAZUS, current scientific and engineering knowledge is coupled with the latest geographic information systems (GIS) technology to produce estimates of hazard-related damage before, or after, a disaster occurs.
NOAA Coastal Risk Atlas
Data provided within the Coastal Risks Atlas include acquired model outputs of hazards such as storm surge, maximum winds, and inland flooding. Demographic data help in locating vulnerable populations. The Atlas also provides mapping, assessment tools, and other information.
NOAA Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tool
This website provides tools and methods to assist in completing vulnerability assessments. The website provides instruction on how to use the Community Vulnerability Assessment Tool, interactive mapping data, a community rating system, and a storm surge visualization tool.
Planning Tools
These decision support tools can be used to assess future potential climate changes and their impacts.
NCAR MAGICC and SCENGEN Tools
These coupled, user-friendly interactive software suites allow users to investigate future climate change and its uncertainties at both the global-mean and regional levels.
NOAA Climate Attribution Toolbox
Climate attribution attempts to explain evolving climate conditions and to assess their impacts at the regional or local levels.
NOAA Habitat Priority Planner
The Habitat Priority Primer was designed with the local planner, coastal conservation group, and the coastal manager in mind. The Primer is a spatial decision support tool that helps users prioritize important areas in the landscape or seascape for conservation or restoration. This tool generates a range of scenarios and options, as well as pertinent reports, maps, and data tables.
Examples of Vulnerability Assessments for Coastal Areas
Several reports have assessed current and future vulnerabilities to climate change at the regional level.
Climate Change in Coastal Areas in Florida: Sea Level Rise Estimation and Economic Analysis to Year 2080 (PDF) (87 pp, 3.3MB)
This Florida State University study evaluates the effect of sea level rise on six coastal counties in Florida, including estimated storm event return period and cost damages, storm surge, and property values affected as a result of rising sea levels.
Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region
This report, prepared by EPA in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, discusses the impacts of sea level rise on the physical characteristics of the coast, on coastal communities, and the habitats that depend on them.
Gulf Coast Wetland Sustainability in a Changing Climate (PDF) (24 pp, 203K)
This Pew Center case study examines the current state of Gulf Coast wetlands, and outlines potential future impacts of climate change on wetland sustainability. The report explains that while wetlands are capable of adapting to climatic changes, development and other human impacts limit this adaptability, making increased management necessary.
Marine Climate Change Impacts Annual Report Card 2007–2008 (PDF) (8 pp, 462K)
This report card provides a comprehensive assessment of marine climate change impacts in the United Kingdom. Each topic includes a confidence rating for what is happening now and what could happen in the future with respect to marine climate change impacts in the UK.
Regional Impacts of Climate Change: Four Case Studies in the United States (PDF) (80 pp, 901K)
This December 2007 report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change examines key impacts of climate change and assesses particular climate vulnerabilities in the Midwest, West, Gulf Coast, and Chesapeake Bay regions. The report provides a general perspective on the types of challenges decision-makers will face in developing responses to climate impacts. Each study also considers non-climatic factors, such as development and management practices that are likely to exacerbate our vulnerability to climate change.
Ramifications of Climate Change for Chesapeake Bay Hypoxia (PDF) (20 pp, 251K)
This Pew Center case study describes the current problem of hypoxia (depletion of dissolved oxygen) in the Chesapeake Bay and outlines how this problem could be affected by future climate changes. The report finds that the predicted increased temperatures in the region would lead to the expansion of hypoxia in the Bay.
Uncertain Future: Climate Change and Its Effects on Puget Sound (University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, October 2005)
This report examines the projected impacts of climate change on Puget Sound. Combining a review of current scientific literature and new research, the report provides a detailed assessment of how climate change has affected—and will continue to affect—the Puget Sound environment. Specific areas of focus include changes in regional climate, snowpack, streamflow, sea level rise, water quality, nearshore habitat, and salmon. The importance of planning for climate change is also discussed.
State Coastal Atlases
State Coastal Atlases provide interactive suites of data and resources for coastal decision makers, professionals, and other interest groups, including customizable maps, GIS data layers and metadata, and figures.
New York Coastal Atlas
This site contains a series of maps that delineate New York’s Coastal Area Boundary and identify significant coastal fish and wildlife habitats, scenic areas of statewide significance, federally owned lands, and Native American-owned lands.
Oregon Coastal Atlas
This site includes several decision-support tools that use GIS and simple mathematical models to help coastal managers, planners and scientists manage Oregon's shoreline. Tools include: (1) Potential for Dune Overtopping Tool, which allows a user to project and map extreme ocean water levels—an indicator of wave overtopping; (2) Potential for Dune Undercutting Tool, whichallows a user to project and map foredune retreat—an indicator of the potential for ocean erosion, or wave-undercutting; and (3) Potential for Bluff Recession Tool, which allows a user to project and map the potential for bluff recession due to erosion or landslides.
Texas Coastal Communities Planning Atlas
This is a highly interactive, web-based GIS system that enables a user to examine, visualize, and predict the consequences of development within the coastal zone.
Washington Coastal Atlas
This site includes aerial photographs of Washington's marine shorelines and the land areas near Puget Sound, the outer coast, and the estuarine portion of the Columbia River, where users can view habitat types and physical features, and see changes in land cover.