USA - Coastal Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise - USGS

This project, within the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program's National Assessment, seeks to objectively determine the relative risks due to future Sea Level rise for the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Through the use of a coastal vulnerability index, or CVI, the relative risk that physical changes will occur as Sea Level rises is quantified based on the following criteria: tidal range, wave height, coastal slope, shoreline change, geomorphology, and historical rate of relative Sea Level rise.

This approach combines a coastal system's susceptibility to change with its natural ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and yields a relative measure of the system's natural vulnerability to the effects of Sea Level rise.

The USGS is now involved with the National Park Service applying the CVI to coastal park units.