The Coastal Decision Support System is designed to assess and mitigate the increasing risks for losses in coastal zones from long term sea level rise and increased storminess.
The Coastal Decision Support System is a set of software tools, processes and related services which allows all levels of government, environmental consultants and their clients, and other end-users to understand the coastal environment in terms of the threats posed by long term and on-going climate change; e.g. increased rates of sea-level rise and storm surges.
Using data from computer models that predict water levels and erosion due to storm surges, it facilitates the creation of flood risk maps, flood depth maps, erosion risk maps, and economic impact assessments and recommendations for coastal areas. It allows planning bodies, with responsibility for coastal areas, to model different flood risks, based upon generated water level probability models and a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the topography. The end result of applying these tools and processes is an understanding of coastal zone changes or events which pose a threat, and identification of the various steps that could be taken to avoid or ameliorate the effects of such changes or events.
The Coastal Decision Support System Technical Model, right, schematically lays out the key elements of the Coastal Decision Support System.