Proceedings of the 2023 Mississippi Water Resources Conference

Year: 2023 Authors: Cartwright J., van der Zwaag J., Grala K.

The frequency of flooding events in coastal areas has been increasing for several decades. Current sea level rise projections for this century will make the extreme events of today the norm by 2100. As the frequency of these events increases so does the need for improved education and decision-making. Through the Geospatial Education and Outreach (GEO) Project, efforts have focused on the development of a suite of applications to simulate and visualize sea level rise. GeoCoast3D is an interactive web-based application that allows users to visualize inundation along the MS coast. Using routing analysis, users can visualize the impact of inundation on transportation and service areas for critical infrastructure. This provides them with an enhanced view of the dangers in relation to rising sea levels and hurricanes in coastal communities. The GeoLidar Viewer was created based on colorized LiDAR datasets combined with other layers, including 3D buildings, sea level rise extents, LiDAR-based elevation, and satellite imagery. These layers are displayed in a single interactive 3D scene that is publicly available online. Individual layers can be turned on and off to change the focus of the display to various landscape features. These efforts are being coupled with augmented and virtual reality for in situ 3D modeling of coastal flooding. GeoInundation uses detailed, realistic models generated from LiDAR data, satellite imagery, and site photos. GeoPanorama combines 360° panoramic photos with LiDAR data to create immersive, realistic virtual reality experiences. Both allow the user to simulate water surface height or select a predefined historical high water marker. GeoCoast AR (currently in beta development) allows users to increase and decrease simulated inundation levels on the actual landscape as they navigate the area through the camera on their mobile device.