Seaside, Oregon, Tsunami Pilot Study—Modernization of FEMA Flood Hazard Maps: GIS Data

Introduction

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Federal Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) guidelines do not currently exist for conducting and incorporating tsunami hazard assessments that reflect the substantial advances in tsunami research achieved in the last two decades; this conclusion is the result of two FEMA-sponsored workshops and the associated Tsunami Focused Study (Chowdhury and others, 2005). Therefore, as part of FEMA's Map Modernization Program, a Tsunami Pilot Study was carried out in the Seaside/Gearhart, Oregon, area to develop an improved Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis (PTHA) methodology and to provide recommendations for improved tsunami hazard assessment guidelines (Tsunami Pilot Study Working Group, 2006). The Seaside area was chosen because it is typical of many coastal communities in the section of the Pacific Coast from Cape Mendocino to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and because State agencies and local stakeholders expressed considerable interest in mapping the tsunami threat to this area. The study was an interagency effort by FEMA, U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in collaboration with the University of Southern California, Middle East Technical University, Portland State University, Horning Geoscience, Northwest Hydraulics Consultants, and the Oregon Department of Geological and Mineral Industries. We present the spatial (geographic information system, GIS) data from the pilot study in standard GIS formats and provide files for visualization in Google Earth, a global map viewer.

Revisions and Updates

This GIS compilation will be revised and updated as new data become available. The most flexible way to do this will be to post changes on the publication's web page at https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/236/, and changes will be noted in version_history.txt. The hosting site may change. If there is no forwarding link, go the the USGS home page (http://www.usgs.gov) and search for keywords "Seaside tsunami GIS."

Acknowledgments

Tsunami Pilot Study Working Group

For more information, contact

Florence L. Wong
United States Geological Survey
Coastal and Marine Geology Program
345 Middlefield Road, MS 999
Menlo Park, California 94025

Angie J. Venturato
NOAA Center for Tsunami Research
NOAA/PMEL - UW/JISAO
7600 Sand Point Way, NE
Seattle, Washington, US 98115

Eric L. Geist
United States Geological Survey
Coastal and Marine Geology Program
345 Middlefield Road, MS 999
Menlo Park, California 94025

Version history

Suggested citation:
Wong, F.L., Venturato, A.J., and Geist, E.L., 2006, Seaside, Oregon, tsunami pilot study—Modernization of FEMA flood hazard maps: GIS Data: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 236 [https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/236/].

Data Description

Data Catalog

References