Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Assessing Australia’s coastal vulnerability to climate change

Spatial Source (Australia): The results of an Australian government project to assess coastal vulnerability and prepare for possible sea level rise have been published. The models include complete data files of water depths and broad seabed imagery from pseudo-reflectance and a high resolution coastal 3D model of the land and seabed between Two Rocks and Cape Naturaliste in Western Australia.

It also includes a digital elevation model, geo-referenced digital aerial mosaic imagery, surface images of the bathymetry data at 10 metre resolution and seabed data classification. The digital elevation model will be the primary data set used to analyse the impacts of climate change on infrastructure and the environment.

The models will be an important tool used for planning and managing WA’s coastline. The data will be used to provide a baseline for undertaking continuous studies to assess the vulnerability of the built environment on the local coastline. It will also help model natural disasters, inform the development of local planning projects, and help identify areas that need protecting….

Cape Leeuwin and the lighthouse on it as seen from a gravel road just to the north in Western Australia, shot by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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