| Description : |
Coastal floods already affect millions of people each year, and these effects will only worsen as sea levels continue to rise. Mitigating these impacts requires detailed data on the physical and built environments, the expertise to integrate these data into flood models, and crucially, the participation of local governments and citizens to translate these data into risk management actions. There are two main barriers to resilience in coastal communities - a lack of data mobilization, and a lack of data. Data mobilization is a problem for urban coasts in developed nations; the data required to produce flood models exists, but remains largely unused and inaccessible to the general public. A lack of data is a fundamental problem in rural areas of the developed world and throughout developing nations. This presentation shows a case study for how 21st century technology can be used to find local solutions to these challenges.
First, we will give an overview of how we used low-cost UAV-based coastal surveying technology to produce an ultra-high resolution 3D coastal model. Then, we will show how we transformed this model into an interactive video game-based visualization platform. Drawing on a recently completed hydraulic model and an updated regional sea level rise assessment, we have integrated user-controlled flood animations that will allow residents and local government decision-makers to experience virtual floods in their community. This technology encourages discussions on community resilience building and identifying specific risks, practical solutions, and policy responses to the unique urban, peri-urban and indigenous resilience needs in coastal Canada. |