NC COHAZ: Hazard Maps, Visualizations and Analyses

(Please note: these are from a variety of sources!!!)

Many coastal hazards occur in North Carolina including those that affect our fisheries (e.g., dissolved oxygen level) as well as river flooding, dangerous waves, and gale-force winds.  Check out the current coastal conditions and hazards by here.

STORM SURGE and WAVE SIMULATIONS for ACTIVE and PREVIOUS HURRICANES

Openioos.org powered by SURA SCOOP is making model simulations of storm surge and waves for active and previous hurricanes.  The storm surge model simulations used ADCIRC, and the wave modeling output is from WaveWatch III.

Inlet opening is a significant hazard along the Outer Banks.  This Google Maps tool allows users to visualize areas at greatest risk to inlet opening.

OCEAN SHORELINE EROSION

Ocean shoreline erosion is a chronic problem in North Carolina and around the world.  This Google Maps tool highlights areas of potential future erosion along the Outer Banks using historical erosion rates.

ESTUARINE SHORELINE EROSION

Erosion is a problem not just along our ocean shorelines, but also in more protected coastal waters (e.g., estuaries).  This web page provides useful insights into this important problem which will only get worse as sea-level continues to rise and people flock to live at our coasts.

NC FISH KILLS

The Division of Water Quality has made a dataset of recent fish kills in North Carolina.  If you have Google Earth installed (a free program from Google), recent fish kill across the state are mapped by clicking on the dataset found on the this web site (the link to the .kml file).

NORTH CAROLINA FLOOD MAPS

Hurricane Floyd caused major flooding in eastern North Carolina.  Other events like it and even worse are inevitable.  All NC residents should be aware aware of the flooding potential for their home and community.  Furthermore, insurance should be purchased and maintained for those living in flood prone areas.  Please check out this web site (www.ncfloodmaps.com) to find out the flood zoning and flooding potential of your area. 

The US Army Corps of Engineers and Project Impact have produced a series of maps depicting inundation potential for fast and slow moving hurricanes of various strengths.  The SLOSH model was used to derive the maps, and the atlas of maps are available in .pdf files which can be read using Adope Acrobat Reader.

UNDER DEVELOPMENT: This mapping site utilizes ArcServer, ArcSDE, and Microsoft SQL technologies to display various coastal hazard layers for Dare County in a dynamic online map.  The functionality is much greater than the other maps posted which use Google API, but a novice GIS user can suffer from information overload.  Layers include:  inlet-opening potential, shoreline-erosion potential, and estimated maximum storm surge for a Category 2 hurricane using the SLOSH model.

UNDER DEVELOPMENT: Much of the Outer Banks had an inlet at one time.  How do we know?  Historic aerial photographs, cores of the sediments and geophysical tools like Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR).  Example data are shown in this Google Maps tool. 

This tool is a work in progress; much more data can be added.