FEATURED TOOL: Sea Level Rise Viewer

What would Cape Cod look like with an additional foot of sea level rise? How about 2 feet? Six?

The Sea Level Rise viewer developed by the Cape Cod Commission can show these changes. It is among the Commission efforts to help town’s prepare for the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

The Commission is engaged with nine Cape communities in updating their hazard Plans. Provincetown is expected to release its draft report by the end of the month and submit it to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in December.

There is no timeline associated with the model. It’s intent is to look at potential effects of rising water from 1 to 6 feet across Barnstable County.

The viewer was used to develop the Commission’s February 2015 report, “Critical Transportation Assets and Their Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise.”

Using the SLR Viewer, the study identified several transportation assets that are both vulnerable to sea level rise and critical to the community and the transportation network, including:

AIR: The runway and passenger terminal at the Provincetown Municipal Airport will likely be submerged at 3 – 4 feet of sea level rise.

HIGHWAY and TRANSIT: The Orleans/Eastham Rotary on Route 6 will likely be submerged at 6 feet of sea level rise. Once this asset is submerged, the Outer Cape will essentially become an island, completely isolating Route 6 in Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown from other regions. When the Rotary becomes submerged, both Highway and Transit infrastructure will be affected.

RAIL: Portions of the Yarmouth rail line in Sandwich will likely be submerged at 6 feet of water rise. In this area, the track traverses marsh areas in the Town of Sandwich. This site was also identified as vulnerable in a report generated by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies4.

SEA: The Steamship Authority ferry slip in Barnstable will likely be submerged at 3 feet of sea level rise.

The Cape Cod Commission’s Sea Level Rise Viewer is seen as a good first step, but a the dynamic model under development by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is expected to be more accurate in predicting asset vulnerability.

The Sea Level Rise Viewer was also used by the Cape Cod Times in its multi-part series on climate change in late October.

http://www.capecodcommission.org/sealevelrise