Boosting Community Storm Resilience in Alaska

Challenge

Many remote Alaska villages are at risk from flooding and major storms. However, they’ve had no way to predict and assess these threats; they need to be able to define and understand flood risks in order to effectively prepare for them.

Solution

Working with the state, a NOAA Digital Coast Fellow gathered information on past flood events and determined the risk coastal flooding poses to existing infrastructure for two communities, Golovin and Hooper Bay. He produced storm histories, an online flood risk visualization tool, and maps that rate the severity of flood risks. These towns now have complete storm histories that help them better prepare for, and respond to, coastal storms. Weather forecasters are using the fellow’s maps to communicate flood risks to the community, and a publication will aid planners and hazard assessors in performing their own risk analyses.

This effort was so successful, it’s being applied in 44 additional Alaska Native communities.

Additional Resources

Alaska Coastal Community Flood Assessments

Digital Coast Fellowship Program

A flood staff is made for each community. The staff compares infrastructure heights to flood categories and past storm heights. The staff, connected to the flood risk map, provides a fast way to communicate the forecast flood height and impact of an incoming storm.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from NOAA Office for Coastal Management. A Digital Coast story by NOAA's Office for Coastal Management; as a work of the United States government, in the public domain.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.