University Park ONLY: Formative Assessment: Recognizing Short- & Long-Term Sea Level Change

There are two different activities that you can do to help you understand tides and learn about the impact of sea level change on coastal areas in the U.S. As water levels rise, they also move inland to further and further extents which depend on the elevation of the water producing the flooding tide, the nature of the ecosystems present, and the topography of the shoreline being impacted. Understanding why tides rise and fall is critical as is understanding the impact that tides and surges have when they come ashore. The following activities help you visualize and analyze how tides work and the processes, both short-term and long-term, that impact coastlines and coastal communities on daily to yearly basis and in the future.

Visualization 1: Modeling Short-Term Sea Level Change: Tides and Storm Surge

The first tool is a simple, interactive visualization tool to help you watch how tides and other processes can produce sea level change. It is strongly recommended that you visit The Interactive Earth website and change a variety of parameters including tidal characteristics, storm impacts, lunar phase effects, etc., to experience the change for yourself. Below is a screen shot from the website. The Interactive Earth program was developed for the NODE project (NOAA Ocean Data Education).

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Figure 4.13: Tides and Sea Level Modelling screenshot. Note: You can easily change the tide height, add lunar phase effects, add storm events of various durations, etc. Play with the various controls and watch what happens in this simplistic model. To better understand the reality of storms impacts, it is important that you take these concepts to real case studies.
Credit:Screenshot from the interactive Earth website from NOAA taken on 8/1/2014 at 2:49 p.m.

Visualization 2: Modeling Short- & Long-Term Sea-Level: Storms and Long-Term Sea Level Rise

You have two options for your second visualization (and you may want to look at both of them). Both help you visualize potential changes in long-term sea level, relative to short-term events (i.e., storm surge) determined from real events experienced in various regions. Future sea level projections are based on modeling that you will learn more about in Module 5. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) has produced a tool called "Sea-Level Rise Visualization for Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida". Through this visualization, you can explore the impact of projected sea level rise ranging from 1 ft SLR (1 foot of sea level rise) up to 6 ft SLR relative to the inundation produced by Hurricane Katrina.

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Figure 4.14: Sea-Level Rise Visualization for Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida screenshot. Note: You can change projected sea level rise scenarios and investigate the extent of Hurricane Katrina's storm surge. You can zoom in and out and change the layers that you observe (i.e., Satellite, Street Map, Topographic Map/Terrain). Investigate the various controls, zoom to any of the coastal sites in the observable region and explore how topography and coastal infrastructure influence or could be influenced by various scenarios. To better understand the reality of storms impacts, it is important that you take these concepts to real case studies - so we will ask a variety of questions about this specific visualization.
Credit: Screenshot from the USGS's Sea-Level Rise Visualization for Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida website taken on 8/1/2014 at 2:55 p.m.

The third tool is found at NOAA's Digital Coast website. It can be used to visualize the impact of sea level rise in different areas of the U.S. It works similarly to the USGS visualization but is much more extensive in its focus and coverage.

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Figure 4.15: NOAA's Digital Coast website: Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts
Credit: Screenshot from NOAA's Digital Coast website

Other visualization websites have been and/or are being developed around the world. If you find any of these resources, please feel free to share the link information with the instructor so they can be reviewed and if possible made available to other students.

Note: Don't spend too much time on these activities as fun as they are - because later units in the course will ask you to consider impacts on human landscapes, but at least become versed in how you can use these tools for later use.

• University Park ONLY: Formative Assessment Part 1: Visualization and Questions Interactive Earth
• University Park ONLY: Formative Assessment Visualization and Questions Part 2: Sea Level Rise for Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida