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Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to Sea-Level Rise, USGS Open-File Report 2004-1064

Map of Coastal Vulnerability

Skip past contents informationTable of Contents link to Title Page Link to Abstract Page Link to Introduction Page Link to Data Ranking Page Link to Cape Hatteras National Seashore Page Link to Methology Page Link to Geologic Variables Page Link to Physical Process Variables Page Link to Calculating the Vulnerability Index Page Link to Results Page Link to Discussion Page Link to Conclusions Page Link to References Page

Methodology

Figure 2. Shoreline grid for Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Figure 2. Shoreline grid for Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Click on figure for larger image.

In order to develop a database for a park-wide assessment of coastal vulnerability, data for each of the six variables mentioned above were gathered from state and federal agencies (Table 2). The database is based on that used by Thieler and Hammar-Klose (1999) and loosely follows an earlier database developed by Gornitz and White (1992). A comparable assessment of the sensitivity of the Canadian coast to sea-level rise is presented by Shaw and others (1998). The database was constructed using a 1:70,000-scale shoreline for Cape Hatteras that was produced from the medium resolution digital vector U.S. shoreline provided by the Strategic Environmental Assessments Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (http://spo.nos.noaa.gov/projects/shoreline/shoreline.html). Data for each of the six variables (geomorphology, shoreline change, coastal slope, relative sea-level rise, significant wave height, and tidal range) were added to the shoreline attribute table using a 1-minute (approximately 1.5 km) grid (Figure 2). Next each variable in each grid cell were assigned a relative vulnerability value from 1-5 (1 is very low vulnerability, 5 is very high vulnerability) based on the potential magnitude of its contribution to physical changes on the coast as sea level rises (Table 1).

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