A GIS modelling approach to a 'first pass' national coastal vulnerability assessment  

Authors / CoAuthors

Skene, D. | Sharples, C. | Mount, R. | Nadimpalli, K. | Wallace, L. | Lacey, M. | Baker, C.

Abstract

Some of the most visible consequences arising from climate change are sea level rise and more intense and frequent storms. On the open coast and low lying estuarine waterways these impacts will lead to the increased risks of inundation, storm surge and coastal erosion that can damage beaches, property and infrastructure and impact on a significant number of people. Understanding the potential risk of these coastal hazards is critical for coastal zone management and the formulation of adaptation responses, while early action is likely to be the most cost effective approach to managing the risk. Geoscience Australia (GA) is assisting the Australian Government's Department of Climate Change to develop a 'first pass' National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment. GA and the University of Tasmania (UTas) are developing fundamental spatial datasets and GIS modelling tools to identify which land areas of the Australian coast are likely to be physically sensitive to the effects of sea level rise, storms and storm surge. Of special interest is to identify sensitive areas where there is significant property and infrastructure that will be the focus of a more detailed study in a second pass assessment. A new national shoreline geomorphic and stability map or Smartline, developed for the project by UTas, is a key new spatial dataset. The Smartline is an interactive, nationally-consistent coastal GIS map in the form of a segmented line. Each line segment identifies distinct coastal landform types using multiple attribute fields to describe important aspects of the geology, geomorphology and topography of the coast. These data enable an assessment of the stability of the coast and its sensitivity to the potential impacts of shoreline erosion (soft coast) and inundation (low-lying coast), providing a useful indicative coastal risk assessment.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

68533

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Keywords

• External PublicationAbstract

( Theme )

• GIS

( Theme )

• climate

( Theme )

• coasts

( Theme )

• risk assessment

( Theme )

• marine

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2009-01-01T00:00:00

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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Use - license

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unknown

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geoscientificInformation

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Spatial Resolution

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