Framework for Analysing Coastal Vulnerability Due to Sea Level Rise and Coastal Floods using R

Sea level rise is a natural global phenomenon which is aggravated by anthropological activities. Severity of the rise varying in different parts of the world but the stress in general is increasingly threatening human development. Sustenance of a few species and their ecosystem depends on the rate and extent of rise. Coastal floods are inundations in coastal areas due to rise in sea water level. The inundations could be either temporary (high tide, heavy rainfall, tsunami and cyclones) or permanent (global warming). Coastal zones are among the highly populated areas having most diverse ecosystem. They are directly affected by the sea level rise phenomenon. This population is mainly dependent on the coastal ecosystem for their livelihood. Continuously increasing sea levels and receding coastlines are concern for policy and decision makers. This emphasises the need for an easy to use tool for rapid scenario generation and frequent analysis. Current work focuses on a framework for open source tool using R for coastal inundation vulnerability mapping and scenario generation. This tool uses global data sets like ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model along with SRTM elevation data. The tool can be used for India as a whole or for various state/district level analysis. The key inputs for this tool are rainfall information, tide level and rate of sea level rise. The output of the scenario generation will be in .kml, .shp and .tiff file format. Maps can be generated using preloaded vector files.