[Vision2020] “Sea level rise...an invisible tsunami, building... while we do almost nothing,” Scientist Benjamin H. Strauss,

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/science/earth/study-rising-sea-levels-a-risk-to-coastal-states.html

“Sea level rise is like an invisible tsunami, building force while we do
almost nothing,” said Benjamin H. Strauss, an author, with other
scientists, of two new papers outlining the research. “We have a closing
window of time to prevent the worst by preparing for higher seas.”
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http://www.climatecentral.org/about/people-bio/ben_strauss/
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http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/48934

"This paper may be the first national-scale (contiguous US) application of
Vdatum," said Strauss. "Previous work has either neglected tidal heights,
or has had to rely on individual tidal gauges for small areas, or has had
to make customized interpolations – a critical effort, but VDatum has now
made the whole process much easier and more rigorous."
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Tidally adjusted estimates of topographic vulnerability to sea level rise
and flooding for the contiguous United States

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/7/1/014033/article

Benjamin H Strauss1, Remik Ziemlinski1, Jeremy L Weiss2 and Jonathan T
Overpeck2,3,4

Received 28 September 2011, accepted for publication 26 January 2012
Published 14 March 2012
Abstract

Because sea level could rise 1 m or more during the next century, it is
important to understand what land, communities and assets may be most at
risk from increased flooding and eventual submersion. Employing a recent
high-resolution edition of the National Elevation Dataset and using VDatum,
a newly available tidal model covering the contiguous US, together with
data from the 2010 Census, we quantify low-lying coastal land, housing and
population relative to local mean high tide levels, which range from ~0 to
3 m in elevation (North American Vertical Datum of 1988). Previous work at
regional to national scales has sometimes equated elevation with the amount
of sea level rise, leading to underestimated risk anywhere where the mean
high tide elevation exceeds 0 m, and compromising comparisons across
regions with different tidal levels. Using our tidally adjusted approach,
we estimate the contiguous US population living on land within 1 m of high
tide to be 3.7 million. In 544 municipalities and 38 counties, we find that
over 10% of the population lives below this line; all told, some 2150 towns
and cities have some degree of exposure. At the state level, Florida,
Louisiana, California, New York and New Jersey have the largest sub-meter
populations. We assess topographic susceptibility of land, housing and
population to sea level rise for all coastal states, counties and
municipalities, from 0 to 6 m above mean high tide, and find important
threat levels for widely distributed communities of every size. We estimate
that over 22.9 million Americans live on land within 6 m of local mean high
tide.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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