Sea Level Rise

Since 1880, global mean sea level has risen by 8-9 inches (21-24 centimeters) . This rise is mainly attributed to two outcomes of global warming: the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and ocean expansion due to increasing ocean temperatures. Rising sea levels threaten personal property and infrastructure of coastal cities and towns as well as coastal ecosystems. It also worsens the devastation of natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis, which can reach farther inland. Average sea level rise in the U.S. is projected to be 7.2 feet (2.2 meters) by 2100, and 13 feet (3.9 meters) by 2150 with current global temperature and glacial retreat models .

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https://www.usgs.gov/tools/coastal-change-hazards-portal by USGS. Displays probabilities of coastal erosion.

Dataset	Description	Map viewer and/or Data access
ESA CCI gridded sea level data	A multi-satellite merged time series of monthly gridded Sea Level Anomalies, with a spatial resolution of 0.25 degrees, from year 1993 to 2015.	View; Access
Sea level rise viewer by NOAA	The data and maps illustrate potential coastal flooding impact areas and relative depth associated with different scales of sea level rise, as well as potential changes in marsh and other land cover types based on inundation levels. It can be used as a screening-level tool for management decisions.	View
Sea level analysis tool	The web application enables users to visualize observed sea level data, compare observations to projected sea level change, and estimate when tidal and extreme water levels will intersect with elevation thresholds related to local infrastructure (e.g., roads, power generating facilities, dunes).	View
NOAA sea level observation	Global and local sea level time series based on measurements from satellite radar altimeters since 1992.	Access
NASA's sea level change portal	NASA provides a comprehensive portal for sea level change, including historical data, satellite observations, and projections.	observations; IPCC AR6 projection; Interagency scenarios
NASA's coastal flooding analysis tool	High-tide flooding is becoming more common in U.S. coastal areas. NASA's Flooding Analysis Tool was created to help assess how sea-level rise and other factors will impact high-tide flooding frequency. Users can view sea-level observations and past flooding frequency, explore future flooding changes, and access statistics and key inflection points to aid decision-making.	View
Sea level rise analysis by Climate Central	Climate Central provides a set of mapping tools for accurate, clear and granular information about sea level rise and coastal flood hazards both locally and globally, today and tomorrow.	View
FEMA flood hazard and risk viewer	These data show predicted sea level rise expected to occur by 2050. This increase can give users a sense of how much coastal flooding might increase over the same time.	View
USGS Coastal Change Hazards Portal	This portal provides a comprehensive collection of data related to coastal hazards, including the probability of long-term shoreline change due to sea-level rise. This probability is calculated using information about rates of relative sea-level rise, wave height, tidal range, coastal geomorphology, coastal slope, and historical rate of shoreline change. Coastal vulnerability index to this change is also giving.	View

storm-tide monitoring: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/storm-tide-monitoring#overview

• storm events database by NOAA: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/
• severe weather data inventory by NOAA https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/severe-weather-data-inventory view https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/swdi/
• usgs total water level and coastal change forecast viewer: https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/research/twlviewer/
• https://marine.usgs.gov/coastalchangehazardsportal/ has long and short-term shoreline changes, sea level rise.

Ocean data

• Daily OISST by NCEI: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/optimum-interpolation-sst
• NOAA digital coast: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/flood-exposure.html

Damage and Loss

Publication Information

• Publication Date: 2023-10-23
• Citation:

Bartlett, M.K., Farris, A.S., Weber, K.M., and Henderson, R.E., 2023, USGS National Shoreline Change — 2017 lidar-derived mean high water shoreline and associated shoreline change data for coastal North Carolina: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9HYNUNV.

Summary

The USGS has compiled shoreline data for over two decades, creating a record of historical shoreline positions to monitor and analyze national shoreline evolution. The most recent dataset encompasses a newly extracted mean high water (MHW) shoreline from lidar data in 2017 and provides rates of change for both long-term and short-term assessments.

Subregions Covered

• Northern North Carolina (NCnorth)
• Central North Carolina (NCcentral)
• Southern North Carolina (NCsouth)
• Western North Carolina (NCwest)

Contact Information

• Point of Contact: Marie K Bartlett
• Authors: Marie K Bartlett, Amy Farris, Kathryn M Weber, Rachel E. Henderson
• Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey
• Data Owner: Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
• USGS Program: Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program
• Distributor: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase

Attached Files

• [Insert link to the file here NC_shoreline_2017.PNG] - "2017 lidar shoreline extents for each region of coastal North Carolina" (thumbnail, 2.98 MB, image/png)

Related Resources

• Digital Shoreline Analysis System (version 5.1): U.S. Geological Survey Software
• Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 5.1 User Guide

Communities & Tags

• USGS Data Release Products
• Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
• Tags: coastal processes, erosion, geospatial datasets, shoreline accretion

Additional Information

• Provenance: On 20231024, V. Cross removed redundant zip files from each data page.
• Identifiers: doi:10.5066/P9HYNUNV

storm-tide monitoring: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/storm-tide-monitoring#overview

• storm events database by NOAA: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/
• severe weather data inventory by NOAA https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/severe-weather-data-inventory view https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/swdi/
• usgs total water level and coastal change forecast viewer: https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/research/twlviewer/
• https://marine.usgs.gov/coastalchangehazardsportal/ has long and short-term shoreline changes, sea level rise.

Ocean data

• Daily OISST by NCEI: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/optimum-interpolation-sst
• NOAA digital coast: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/flood-exposure.html

Damage and Loss

• https://nowcoast.noaa.gov/
• NOAA digital coast summarizes the useful tools for coastal data https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/
• sea level rise viewer by NOAA: The data and maps illustrate potential coastal flooding impact areas and relative depth associated with different scales of sea level rise, as well as potential changes in marsh and other land cover types based on inundation levels. It can be used as a screening-level tool for management decisions. Data download
• https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/home.html contains a lot of useful data as well as download.
• digital coast socioeconomic data: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/
• digital coast infrastructure data: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/
• data.gov: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/?metadata_type=geospatial
• Local coastal erosion maps for different scenarios of sea level rise and frequency of storms: https://ourcoastourfuture.org/hazard-map/ https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/ocof.html
• community level wildfire risk https://wildfirerisk.org/explore/

Comprehensive mapping tools:

• https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/.html contains a lot of useful data as well as download.
• coastal flood exposure mapper: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/flood-exposure.html This online visualization tool supports communities that are assessing their coastal hazard risks and vulnerabilities. The tool creates a collection of user-defined maps that show the people, places, and natural resources exposed to coastal flooding. It contains hazard layers (FEMA flood zone, storm surge, sea level rise, and coastal flood hazard composite, ), societal, infrastructure, and ecosystem exposure.
• https://nar.headwaterseconomics.org/ contains a lot of socioeconomic statistics by county and state
• Data access viewer: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/dav.html This online tool allows a user to search for and download lidar, imagery, and land cover data by user-defined geography. Once found, the data can be downloaded with an easy-to-use checkout interface. Users can select from multiple file formats, projections, and datums.
• Flood event viewer: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/fev.html This interactive map provides viewable and downloadable flood event data from the U.S. Geological Survey's Short-Term Network (STN) database.
• Climate change indicators by EPA: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/oceans
• tide and currents NOAA: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/map/index.html
• climate explorer: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/climate-explorer.htmlThis tool projects climate conditions in the United States over the coming decades. The information is derived from global climate models and is available for counties and county equivalents for all U.S. states and territories.
• climate hazard characteristics based on historical data: https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/assessment-tool/explore/map https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/cmra.html

Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry / Sea Level Rise

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has developed several satellites to measure global sea levels, including TOPEX/Poseidon and the Jason satellite series: Jason-1, Jason-2, and Jason-3. These satellites have monitored the same areas since 1992, and the data from NOAA’s Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry provide insight into historical trends of sea level rise. In this dataset, the difference in mean sea level from each satellite is provided from 1992 to 2022.

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This scatterplot shows the global mean sea level measurements collected by NASA’s satellites TOPEX/Poseidon and the Jason series. There is an evident upward trend in these measurements, with sea levels having risen about 100 mm since 1992.

Sample Data

Sea level measurements obtained by NASA satellites

year	TOPEX/Poseidon	Jason-1	Jason-2	Jason-3
2002	10.57
2002.027	7.27
2002.054		0.47

Access the complete dataset here: File:Sealeveldata.csv