Flood Risk and Vulnerability Analysis Project - Atlantic Climate ...

Region
Precipitation
Hurricanes
& Tropical
Storms
Sea Level
Rise
Ocean Currents
and
Oscillations
Eastern 1 2 1 0
Central 1 0.5 0.95 0
Western 1 1 0.8 0
Labrador 1.5 1 0.8 0
Table 4-2. Climate Change Prioritization Factors
4.1.6 Community Location and Linkage with Other Datasets
A coastal community with assets at an elevation within the range of projected sea level
rise will be at risk, if not already. Similarly, a community in the vicinity of a watercourse
may also be at risk of flooding. The following analyses have been completed to expand
the information base upon which to base prioritization.
The coastal boundary of the Province was used in conjunction with the geographic
names database of the Province (as available from GeoBase) to establish whether the
community can be considered a coastal community. A value to be used as a basis for
determining whether a community is a coastal community will be based on an
assessment of known coastal communities and their computed offsets from the coast.
An initial investigation of the data identified a “coastal” community as lying within 1000m
of the coast. The communities in the threshold range were located using Google Earth
for a visual assessment of coastal vs. interior designation. This secondary assessment
identified a number of communities as “coastal” as it was evident from Google Earth that
the municipal boundary extended to the coast. An example is the community of Paradise
(LGP# 3655) which is identified as having a point location lying 2934m from the coast.
However, the municipal boundary for the community is extensive (covering almost
30km2) and is bounded on the coast. As such, it was designated a “coastal” community.
Through this assessment 505 communities were identified as “Coastal” and 57 were
identified as “Interior”.
The 1:250,000 DEM of the Province was used to establish an elevation of the point
location for the community based on the geographic names database. This raster DEM
database was sourced from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) retrieved
through the Global Data Explorer website 22. This raster dataset is based on the Routine
ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model 23 .
22 http://gdex.cr.usgs.gov/gdex/
23 Information regarding this dataset is available via https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/content/view/full/11033
TA1112733 page 98