scholarly journals Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement—An Overview

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1142
Author(s):  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Geraldine Fauville ◽  
Anna Carolina Muller Queiroz ◽  
Kelly L. Leo ◽  
Alyssa G. Newton Mann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Simple Task ◽  
Coastal Risks

As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.

scholarly journals Quantifying Uncertainty in Exposure to Coastal Hazards Associated with Both Climate Change and Adaptation Strategies: A U.S. Pacific Northwest Alternative Coastal Futures Analysis

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
Alexis K. Mills ◽  
Peter Ruggiero ◽  
John P. Bolte ◽  
Katherine A. Serafin ◽  
Eva Lipiec
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Quantifying Uncertainty

Coastal communities face heightened risk to coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea-level rise, changing storminess patterns, and evolving human development pressures. Incorporating uncertainty associated with both climate change and the range of possible adaptation measures is essential for projecting the evolving exposure to coastal flooding and erosion, as well as associated community vulnerability through time. A spatially explicit agent-based modeling platform, that provides a scenario-based framework for examining interactions between human and natural systems across a landscape, was used in Tillamook County, OR (USA) to explore strategies that may reduce exposure to coastal hazards within the context of climate change. Probabilistic simulations of extreme water levels were used to assess the impacts of variable projections of sea-level rise and storminess both as individual climate drivers and under a range of integrated climate change scenarios through the end of the century. Additionally, policy drivers, modeled both as individual management decisions and as policies integrated within adaptation scenarios, captured variability in possible human response to increased hazards risk. The relative contribution of variability and uncertainty from both climate change and policy decisions was quantified using three stakeholder relevant landscape performance metrics related to flooding, erosion, and recreational beach accessibility. In general, policy decisions introduced greater variability and uncertainty to the impacts of coastal hazards than climate change uncertainty. Quantifying uncertainty across a suite of coproduced performance metrics can help determine the relative impact of management decisions on the adaptive capacity of communities under future climate scenarios.

Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Protecting Displaced Coastal Communities: Possible Solutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony George Puthucherril
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Small Island Developing States ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Technological Support

Climate change and sea level rise are realities that are upon us and which will profoundly impact the lives and basic rights of millions of coastal residents all over the world. As the law stands both at the international and at certain national levels, the basic human rights of the climate displaced are not adequately protected. This paper identifies two possible displacement scenarios, based on the continued availability/non-availability of land in the face of sea level rise and other climate change impacts; namely, the sinking Small Island Developing States phenomeon, where land disappears and there is no surplus land to support habitation, and all other cases, where the coastal land is battered severely but it can be re-utilized through appropriate adaptation measures or even if coastal frontage land disappears there is still land available inland. On this basis, the paper proposes three possible solutions: (1) bilateral or regional treaties to facilitate resettlement of the inhabitants of sinking Small Island Developing States, (2) appropriate coastal climate change adaptation implemented via integrated coastal zone management and (3) creation of new arrangements under the international climate change regime to provide financial assistance and technological support to respond to both situations. Even though the primary focus of this paper is on coastal communities in South Asia, the lessons that it offers are relevant to other coastal contexts as well.

scholarly journals Sea Level Rise and Local Government

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa James ◽  
Catherine Iorns ◽  
Patrick Gerard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Hazard Management ◽  
National Environmental

Local authorities in New Zealand have a significant responsibility to their communities for managing the effects of sea level rise due to climate change. However, while most local authorities are well engaged and have a clear understanding of issues arising from sea level rise, 73% report that their organisations do not receive enough direction from central government on how to respond. Territorial authorities in particular are seeking a stronger lead, such as legislative reform, clearer and more directive policy, clarification of responsibilities, or a national environmental standard on coastal hazard management. Central government direction is seen as critical to achieve a nationally consistent and equitable approach for coastal communities. This article summarises how this could be addressed, and identifies key challenges facing local government in adapting to sea level rise and climate change.

scholarly journals Challenges in Chennai City to Cope with Changing Climate

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Anushiya Jeganathan ◽  
Ramachandran Andimuthu ◽  
Palanivelu Kandasamy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Green Cover ◽  
Chennai City

Cities are dynamic systems resulting from the complex interaction of various socio-ecological and environmental developments. Climate change disproportionately affects cities mostly located in climate-sensitive areas; thus, these urban systems are the most critical in modern societies under changing climate scenarios, uncertain disruptions, and urban inhabitants' daily lives. It is essential to analyze the challenges in the metropolitan area through the lens of climate change. The present work analyses the challenges in Chennai, a coastal city in India and one of the chief industrial growth canters in Indian and South Asian region. The challenges are analyzed through the city’s system analysis via land use, green cover, population, and coastal hazards. Land use and green cover changes are studied through satellite images using ArcGIS and assessing coastal risks due to sea-level rise through GIS-based inundation model. There are drastic changes in land-use patterns; the green cover had reduced much, including agricultural and forest cover due to rapid urbanization. The land use has changed to 59.6% of the reduction in agriculture land, nearly 40% reduction in forest land, and 47% of the wetland over time. The observed mean sea level trend for Chennai is + 0.55 mm/year from 1916 to 2015 and the area of 21.75 sq. km is under the threat of inundation to 0.5m sea-level rise. The population growth, drastic changes in land use pattern, green cover reduction, and inundation due to sea-level rise increase the city's risks to climate change. There is a need to ensure that future land-use developments do not worsen the current climate risk level, either through influencing the hazards themselves or affecting the urban system's future vulnerability and adaptive capacity. The study also urges the zone level adaptation strategies to ensure the resilience of the city.

scholarly journals IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES IN CLIMATE ADAPTATION

2020 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Juliano Calil
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Erosion ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
3D Models ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Long Beach ◽  
Coastal Risks ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

As coastal communities worldwide contend with sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and other impacts of climate change, a critical piece of the puzzle has become educating stakeholders in highly creative, insightful, and practical ways. In this study, we will highlight the main findings from the use of immersive and interactive Virtual Reality (VR) experiences in climate adaptation. These tools are helping coastal communities better understand potential impacts as well as explore near- and long-term solutions to reduce coastal risks. We will describe the challenges and steps taken to develop these applications at four coastal locations in the U.S. (Turner Station, MD, and Santa Cruz, Long Beach, and Moss Landing in CA); from identifying key objectives of each experience, the critical messages, and target audiences, to flying drones over coastal areas and working with photogrammetry to create hyper-realistic 3D models that are inserted in the VR experience. These immersive and interactive experiences support planning, management and monitoring activities related to sea-level rise, storms, coastal erosion, king tides, and more. These tools are being developed by a multidisciplinary team with a range of expertise including climate and coastal scientists, city planners, communications experts, filmmakers, 3D animators, and VR developers.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/aDIkbn_FO1c

Climate Change – Livelihood – Migration Nexus: A Case Study from Sundarbans, India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malay Pramanik ◽  
Sylvia Szabo ◽  
Indrajit Pal ◽  
Parmeshwar Udmale
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Poor People ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
Coastal Belt ◽  
The Sundarbans ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

<p><strong>Abstract:</strong></p><p>Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century and is likely to increase migration of the marginal communities from the coastal areas throughout the world. It is projected that 200 million people worldwide will be climate refugees by 2050. Owing to high exposure and poor adaptive capacity, low-lying coastal areas and islands in developing countries are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how climate change is affecting the livelihoods, in turn, driving the migration in these regions.</p><p>The present study focuses on the Sundarbans region located along the coastal belt of West Bengal (India) as a part of Ganga-Brahmaputra mega delta. It is also a home of 4.7 million poor people, who earn below US$10 per month. The region is an exceedingly flat, low-lying, alluvial plain highly exposed to sea level rise, storm surge, tornedoes, cyclonic activity, riverbank erosion, salinization and subsequent mangrove depletion. Due to the climatic hazards, the basic livelihoods are at risk and their strategies towards livelihood collection remains largely unknown. Therefore, the present study provides insights into the nexus among climate stimuli, livelihood risks, and households’ strategies in the region, with special emphasize on climate change.</p><p>The study is based on field survey of 150 respondents representing migrant and non-migrant coastal communities from Gosaba, Basanti and Hingalganj block using structured questionnaires. More than 70% of respondents stated that livelihood risks mainly from climate change impacts as the major reason for inter-state migration, which is the main source of income supporting livelihood in the region. This environmental displacement in the Sundarbans region symbolizes the failure of adaptation to mitigate climate change induced sea level rise increasing the exposure to coastal flooding and storm surges, salinization, and erosion.  This study discusses potential mitigation strategies to combat the impacts of climate change on livelihoods of the coastal communities in the region.</p>

scholarly journals Quantitative Coastal Resilience Assessment Framework under Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Coastal Resilience ◽  
Resilience Assessment

Accompanied by increasing population growth and urban sprawl, most coastal cities are unprecedentedly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts, such as sea level rise, increasing extreme storm events, and coastal flooding. Coastal resilience and sustainable development are antidotes to vulnerability; they aim to enhance the adaptive capability of absorbing disturbances and resisting uncertainty. This study explores building a quantitative assessment framework to measure resilience and provide an objective and comparable method to understand the strengths and weaknesses in a given region. The proposed 25 resilience indicators incorporate the aspects of essential livelihood protection, infrastructure and natural resource maintenance, emergency facilities and institutions, floodplain management regulations, and adaptive planning process. Each indicator is assigned the resilience quality that includes robustness, resourcefulness, redundancy, and rapidity. The aggregated resilience quality scoring reflects the systematic performance of the city to cope with the coastal hazards. The innovative part of this framework is combining hazard mitigation measures, climate adaptation strategies, and sustainable development goals together to achieve a comprehensive assessment method. In the case of New Haven, the resilience assessment is taken as a practical monitoring tool and decision-making support.

Assessing The Effects Of Climate Change On Sea Level Rise Along The Gulf Of Guinea

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Caleb Mensah Amos T. Kabo-bah Eric Mortey
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Coastal Belt

The sea level is rising due to global warming in response, by and large, to anthropogenic activities. Coastal communities along the Gulf of Guinea are low lying which makes them more vulnerable to rising sea level. Due to the topography of the Gulf of Guinea, the coastal belt is a highly erosive sandy barrier system that is susceptible to flooding. In West Africa, highlyproductive ecosystem like mangroves, estuaries, and deltas, that form the vital socio-economic activities like trade, tourism, fisheries and industrial growth due to the oil and gas development are found in these coastal communities. Therefore, majority of the population in West Africa who live in these mega cities along the coast face possible threats. Thus, climate adaptation is the only option to address these future threats as reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other green house gases is not enough for now to prevent global warming which leads to sea level rise. Thus, this study seeks to investigate from other research works, how sea level rise has affected these coastal communities along the Gulf of Guinea and how the communities are adapting to these challenges to new ways of living. It concludes with a recommendation on a climate change based framework.

scholarly journals Projected changes to air temperature, sea-level rise, and storms for the Gulf of Maine region in 2050

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Chisholm ◽  
Tracey Talbot ◽  
William Appleby ◽  
Benita Tam ◽  
Robin Rong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Gulf Of Maine ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Projected Changes ◽  
Storm Characteristics ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

A scientific scenario paper was prepared ahead of the Gulf of Maine (GOM) 2050 International Symposium to review and summarize possible weather-related and sea-level changes within the GOM as a result of climate change. It is projected that the GOM will experience warming temperatures, continued sea-level rise, and changes to storm characteristics and related elements such as precipitation and waves in the intermediate term, by approximately 2050. Coastal communities within the GOM region are particularly vulnerable to the anticipated impacts of climate change. This article aims to provide context on some of the consequential impacts that may occur from the changes projected within the area.

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