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Vulnerability of coastal communities to sea-level rise: a case study of Cape May County, New Jersey, USA by SY Wu; B Yarnal; A Fisher is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

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This study demonstrates how sea-level rise increases the vulnerability of coastal communities to flooding associated with coastal storms. The case study applies a GIS-based methodology to assess the vulnerability of Cape May County, New Jersey, to flood hazards caused by both riverine flooding and coastal storm surges. For storm events of differing intensities, it first identifies areas that will be inundated and how they will change with projected sea-level rise. It then assesses the social vulnerability of the county, taking into account factors such as age, gender, race, income and housing conditions. Finally, it combines physical and social vulnerabilities to create a picture of the county's present overall vulnerability, as well as how this will change with projected sea-level rise. To account for uncertainties in projections, possible ranges of both population growth and sea-level rise are incorporated in low, medium and high scenarios. The results show that sea-level rise will increase the vulnerability of the county to flood hazards considerably by increasing the areas that are exposed to the highest flood risk, hence increasing the number of critical facilities, properties

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Author

SY Wu; B Yarnal; A Fisher

Publisher

Inter-Research Science Center

Published

2002

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)