This interactive map allows users to view the locations of levees and land areas projected to be below the average annual flood elevation at various times in the near and distant future.
The map is worldwide and searchable, with slider tools, a settings menu, and an instructional video about how to use the map.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This map is easy to use and understand.
The ability to change settings and projections to view the impacts is useful and fun.
The information tabs on the settings menu provide many opportunities for extension activities based upon this map and the data sets employed to create it.
Additional Prerequisites
Depending on the student level of understanding, it may be helpful to explore the impacts of rising seawater on populations and infrastructure when including this map in a learning activity.
The instructional video has an ad before it begins and is just under 5 minutes long.
Differentiation
For students who may be interested in the economic and social impacts of sea level rise, invite them check out this video resource.
Encourage students to look at the NASA data on sea level rise and make some projections of their own. These could include simple predictions, such as future sea level height, or more complicated predictions, such as the possible migrations of at-risk communities to higher elevations.
For students in upper elementary and middle grades, this explanation of how humans measure global sea level is both interesting and helpful.
Scientist Notes
This map shows the current state of sea level rise and areas under flood protection. It projects impending coastal flooding and land below water level. Although, marginal error increases when down-scaled to the local level because datasets were collected from a global level. It is also unable to predict extreme storm surges and flood events, since it does not take into account erosion and storm intensity. The map is objective and suitable to explore and project coastal risk, thus it is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth’s systems.
Social Studies
Geography
Geography 1: Students understand the geography of the community, Maine, the United States, and various regions of the world by communicating their findings by creating visual representations of the world, showing a basic understanding of the geographic grid, including the equator and prime meridian.
Geography 1 (F1): Students understand the geography of the community, Maine, the United States, and various regions of the world, and geographic influences on life in the past, present, and future by using the geographic grid and a variety of types of maps, including digital sources, to locate and access relevant geographic information that reflects multiple perspectives.
Geography 1 (D3): Students understand the geography of the United States and various regions of the world and the effect of geographic influences on decisions about the present and future by describing the major regions of the Earth and their major physical, environmental, and cultural features using a variety of geographic tools, including digital tools and resources.
