climate change on UAE - Stockholm Environment Institute-US Center

Impacts, Vulnerability & Adaptation for
Coastal Zones in the United Arab Emirates
Figure ‎4-4. CReSIS, 6m inundation. (CReSIS, University of Kansas)
of latitude and longitude (approximately one
kilometer at the Equator), with each land cell
in the grid assigned an elevation value (meters)
in whole number increments (see output in
Figure ‎4-4).
Using raster analysis, the University of Kansas
team identified potentially inundated areas
based on elevation and proximity to the current
shoreline. Using an algorithm, similar to the
UofA team, they flagged all raster cells adjacent
to the contiguous ocean and then did a second
order of analysis to flag cells whose elevation
value is less than or equal to the desired sea
level rise increment. Since the initial pass
floods only those cells that are directly adjacent
to the current ocean, the two-step procedure
is repeated until all cells connected with cells
adjacent to the ocean are inundated (CReSIS,
2008).
4.3. Data limitations,
methodological
considerations: challenges to
mapping sea level rise
Accurately mapping areas potentially
inundated by rising seas depends on accurate
measurements of current mean sea level as
well as high-resolution terrain data to position
in relation to mean sea level. The uneven
distribution of masses across the planet
makes it tricky to measure relative sea level.
A quick technical tangent explains this fact
further. The geoid is the level of surface that
the sea surface would assume in the absence of
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