Projected flooding extents and depths based on 10-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year wave-energy return periods, with and without coral reefs, for the States of Hawaii and Florida, the Territories of Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

This data release provides flooding extent polygons (flood masks) and depth values (flood points) based on wave-driven total water levels for 22 locations within the States of Hawaii and Florida, the Territories of Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For each of the 22 locations there are eight associated flood mask polygons and flood depth point files: one for each four nearshore wave energy return periods (rp; 10-, 50-, 100-, and 500-years) and both with (wrf) and without (worf) the presence of coral reefs. These flood masks can be combined with economic, ecological, and engineering tools to provide a rigorous financial valuation of the coastal protection benefits of coral reefs of the United States, Territories, and Affiliated Islands.
The degradation of coastal habitats, particularly coral reefs, raises risks by exposing communities to flooding hazards. The protective services of these natural defenses are not assessed in the same rigorous, economic terms as artificial defenses such as seawalls, and therefore often not considered in decision-making. Engineering, ecologic, social, and economic tools were combined to provide a quantitative valuation of the coastal protection benefits of the coral reefs of the United States. The goal of this effort was to identify how, where, and when coral reefs provide the most significant coastal flood reduction benefits socially and economically under current and future climate change scenarios. A risk-based valuation framework to estimate the risk reduction benefits from coral reefs and provide annual expected benefits in social and economic terms was followed. The methods follow a sequence of steps integrating physics-based hydrodynamic modeling, quantitative geospatial modeling, and economic and social analyses to quantify the hazard, the role of coral reefs in reducing the hazard, and the resulting consequences (described in Storlazzi and others, 2019).

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Organization: Department of the Interior