Table of Contents Web Site Title Page Introduction Risk Variables Data Ranking Coastal Vulnerability Index Results Discussion Summary References Woods Hole Field Center Home Page Coastal and Marine Geology Program Home Page U.S. Geological Survey with link to U.S.G.S. Home Page
 

  Table 1
  Table 1. Ranking of coastal vulnerability index variables for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Figure 1
Figure 1. Map of the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) for the U.S. Gulf coast. The CVI shows the relative vulnerability of the coast to changes due to future rise in sea-level. Areas along the coast are assigned a ranking from low to very high risk, based on the analysis of physical variables that contribute to coastal change.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Histograms showing the frequency of occurrence and cumulative frequency of CVI values for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. The vertical red lines delineate the chosen ranges for low, moderate, high, and very high risk areas.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Bar graph showing the percentage of shoreline along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast in each risk category. The graph also shows the total length of shoreline (in kilometers) in each risk category. The total length of mapped shoreline in this study is 8058 km.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Map of the geomorphology variable for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. The shoreline is composed predominantly of very high-risk barrier island complexes, lagoons, marshes and deltas.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Map of the tide range variable for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. The tide ranges are less than 1.0 m over the open-ocean coast, thus, the entire coast has a very high risk ranking.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Map of the wave height variable for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. The wave height variable displays a regional trend of high wave heights ( >.8 m) to the west and lower wave heights (< .4 m) to the east.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Map of the relative sea level rise variable for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. The highest rates of sea-level rise in the Gulf of Mexico (and in the United States) are in the Mississippi delta region (>10 mm/yr).
Figure 8
Figure 8. Map of the coastal slope of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. The slope is the least, <0.02%, in the region of the Mississippi delta. The slope is the highest (>.0435 %) south of Corpus Christi, along the western panhandle of Florida, and in the greater Tampa - St.Petersburg region.
Figure 9
Figure 9. Map of the erosion rate variable for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. Most of the Gulf of Mexico coast receives a moderate to very high risk ranking, meaning the coastline is either stable or is eroding. There are few accreting areas.


National Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise: Preliminary Results for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Coast

Table of Contents

Title Page


Introduction


Risk Variables


Data Ranking


Coastal Vulnerability Index (C.V.I.)


Results


Discussion


Summary


References



Back to Top Title Page
Introduction Risk
Variables		 Data
Ranking		 C.V.I. Results Discussion Summary References

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/of00-179/pages/toc.html
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