DOI: 10.21220/42
title: 2016 Sea Level Rise App Data Archive: All Data

description: Value Lang Edit Associated Publications Loftis, J.D. (2025). GPS Positional Accuracy Comparisons Using Community Science Data for Flood Forecast Model Validation Applications. OCEANS 2025 – Great Lakes, Chicago, IL, 1–12. 10.23919/OCEANS59106.2025.11245158 Loftis, J.D. and Katragadda, S. (2025). Best Practices for Flood Model Validation using Community Science. 2025 ESRI User Conference Session 1467, 104653. Mulholland, M.R., Macías-Tapia, A., and Loftis, J.D. (2022). Water quality impacts from tidal flooding in Southern Chesapeake Bay. Oceans 2022 MTS/IEEE Hampton Roads, IEEE. 10.1109/OCEANS47191.2022.9977117 Loftis, J.D., Mitchell, M., Schatt, D., Forrest, D.R., Wang, H.V., Mayfield, D., and Stiles, W.A. (2019). Validating an Operational Flood Forecast Model Using Citizen Science in Hampton Roads, VA, USA. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 7, 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7080242
description: The Sea Level Rise mobile application is a free app on iOS and Android platforms that seeks to map tidal inundation and flooding attributed to storm surge. This archived GIS shape file dataset was from the beta release of the App on iOS, and it features GPS inundation extent data points collected worldwide including known inundation trouble spots via an early beta version of the free Sea Level Rise mobile app during Hurricane Hermine and Hurricane Matthew, as the two most significant flooding events of 2016 in Hampton Roads, VA. Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app in regular intervals along the water's edge. These data were used as the basis to eventually found Catch the King, the world’s largest environmental survey. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS.