Characterizing and comparing community exposure to coastal flood hazards in California: an integrated approach to support Salish Sea planning
Presentation Abstract
Coastal communities and habitats are continually vulnerable to flooding, and future threats are likely to increase due to the influence of sea level rise. Amidst the uncertainty of these threats, coastal planners must continue to make decisions related to protecting individuals from harm, maintaining public infrastructure, providing government services, and managing natural resources. Communities lack practical tools for identifying hazard exposure to future flooding threats and for identifying partner communities to leverage limited resources. This presentation will summarize current efforts in California to better characterize community-level impacts of coastal flood hazards in the context of what could be applied in the Salish Sea region. Efforts include the Hazard Exposure Reporting and Analytics (HERA) dynamic web application that provides coastal planners with the ability to examine community-level variations in flood-hazard exposure of populations, land cover, infrastructures, and economic assets based on various sea level rise and storm assumptions. Flood-hazard zones were created using the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS), which is the modeling framework being refined for the Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System (PS-CoSMoS) to predict coastal flooding and shoreline impacts in the Salish Sea region through the year 2150. In addition to hazard exposure estimates for individual jurisdictions, statistical cluster analysis was completed to identify community similarities across the San Francisco Bay region. This clustering approach serves as a data-driven foundation to help communities identify other communities with similar adaptation challenges and to enhance regional efforts that aim to facilitate resilience through adaptation planning and investment prioritization. This presentation will provide an overview of coastal-flood-hazard exposure and clustering efforts in California, as well as discussion of application in the Salish Sea region to support coordinated investments and cost-benefit analyses of hazard mitigation and habitat management opportunities.
Session Title
Integrated Coastal Climate Change Modeling for Salish Sea Planning: Part I
Conference Track
SSE5: Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation, and Research
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2018 : Seattle, Wash.)
Document Type
Event
SSEC Identifier
SSE5-407
Start Date
6-4-2018 9:45 AM
End Date
6-4-2018 10:00 AM
Type of Presentation
Oral
Genre/Form
conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Coasts--California; Coasts--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Floodplain management--California; Floodplain management--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Flood forecasting--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Coastal zone management--California; Coastal zone management--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); California
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Characterizing and comparing community exposure to coastal flood hazards in California: an integrated approach to support Salish Sea planning
Coastal communities and habitats are continually vulnerable to flooding, and future threats are likely to increase due to the influence of sea level rise. Amidst the uncertainty of these threats, coastal planners must continue to make decisions related to protecting individuals from harm, maintaining public infrastructure, providing government services, and managing natural resources. Communities lack practical tools for identifying hazard exposure to future flooding threats and for identifying partner communities to leverage limited resources. This presentation will summarize current efforts in California to better characterize community-level impacts of coastal flood hazards in the context of what could be applied in the Salish Sea region. Efforts include the Hazard Exposure Reporting and Analytics (HERA) dynamic web application that provides coastal planners with the ability to examine community-level variations in flood-hazard exposure of populations, land cover, infrastructures, and economic assets based on various sea level rise and storm assumptions. Flood-hazard zones were created using the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS), which is the modeling framework being refined for the Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System (PS-CoSMoS) to predict coastal flooding and shoreline impacts in the Salish Sea region through the year 2150. In addition to hazard exposure estimates for individual jurisdictions, statistical cluster analysis was completed to identify community similarities across the San Francisco Bay region. This clustering approach serves as a data-driven foundation to help communities identify other communities with similar adaptation challenges and to enhance regional efforts that aim to facilitate resilience through adaptation planning and investment prioritization. This presentation will provide an overview of coastal-flood-hazard exposure and clustering efforts in California, as well as discussion of application in the Salish Sea region to support coordinated investments and cost-benefit analyses of hazard mitigation and habitat management opportunities.
