As flooding and sea level rise continue to affect communities, a common question for coastal residents is how will higher water levels affect my neighborhood? Federal agencies, non-profit organizations, and universities have developed tools to explore the impacts of sea level rise both locally and nationally. The HRPDC has created a webpage to easily access and compare tools for viewing sea level rise and coastal flooding risks. These free, online tools can help you identify vulnerable locations in your community and throughout the region. The Sea Level Rise Viewing Tools webpage previously featured three national tools and one tool specific to Virginia, Adapt Virginia, created by the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency. The tool list has been updated to include two new tools released this spring:

Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency’s (CCRFR) Coastal Virginia Sea Level Rise Tool: This tool focuses on the sea level rise scenario used in Governor Northam’s E.O. 45 guidance. It displays predicted impacts of combined sea level rise and tidal flooding events on buildings and roads.

Image Source: Coastal Virginia Sea Level with Minor and Moderate Flooding (NOAA Int-High Scenario 2017) Web Map; Additional information available in the Future Sea Level and Recurrent Flooding Risk for Coastal Virginia Report (2020).

Climate Central Coastal Risk Screening Tool: This Climate Central tool allows the user to view impacts by year or water level, for example, 3 feet above the current high tide line. This is useful for exploring a variety of sea level rise scenarios. For more information on sea level rise projections for the Hampton Roads region, check out the Sea Level Rise Planning and Policy Approach adopted by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission in October 2018.

Image Source: Climate Central Coastal Risk Screening Tool (2020)

The new Sea Level Rise Viewing Tools webpage on the HRPDC website includes links to four other sea level rise viewing tools. The webpage includes a summary table to help direct your search. While some tools focus solely on sea level rise scenario, others include additional infrastructure, societal, or environmental data. Visit the new webpage to see a comparison of the tool features and explore different sea level rise scenarios.