Sea Level Rise Animations

The animations are not a prediction of sea level rise, but rather illustrate areas of low elevation by a blue color simulating coverage by water. The numbers of people in those areas are tabulated. The animations are created using raster elevation, land cover, and population data at 1-kilometer (global), 90-meter (m) (regional) and 30-m (regional, specifically the United States areas) resolution. Colors reflect land-cover categories and the counts are numbers of people below specific elevations in the area shown. The animations provide a visual picture and are not meant to be site specific. They are based exclusively on elevation and do not attempt to account for tidal action, shoreline configuration, and other characteristics that might impact how the water would rise in a specific area. Data resolution and accuracy limits the ability to access a particular location and get an accurate measure of the exact inundation area and number of people. Any errors in the data will affect the accuracy of the simulations. The limits of rise of the global animations are set to 80 m, the theoretical limit of sea level rise if all glaciers and icecaps melt. For regional animations, a limit of 30 m is used since this was the greatest rise resulting from the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2005.