Sea Level Rise and Flood Resources

Expected Sea Level Rise and Sea Level Rise Viewers

Unified Sea Level Rise Projections

The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact (Compact) regularly updates regional unified sea level rise projects. The projections use well established models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and adapt them to regional conditions. To see the most recent projection and guidance documents, visit the Compact’s website. 

According to the guidance document: "In the short term, sea level rise is projected to be 10 to 17 inches by 2040 and 21 to 54 inches by 2070 (above the 2000 mean sea level in Key West, Florida). In the long term, sea level rise is projected to be 40 to 136 inches by 2120. Projected sea level rise, especially beyond 2070, has a significant range of variation as a result of uncertainty in future greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts and resulting geophysical effects."  

Sea Level Rise Viewers

There are many online tools for visualizing risks associated with sea level rise. Below are four user friendly tools to understand more about local risk.

  1. Palm Beach County created the Sea Level Rise Countywide Vulnerability Map [pbc.org]
  2. NOAA created the Sea Level Rise Viewer [noaa.gov]  for the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. Use the tool to explore levels of sea level rise, tidal flooding, and social vulnerability.  
  3. Climate Central’s Surging Seas site provides several mapping options to understand risk to sea level rise. For high level risk information, choose the Risk Finder Tool [climatecentral.org] and explore by City, zip code, or other geographic qualifications. 
  4. Climate Central’s Surging Seas Risk Zone Map [climatecentral.org]  shows risks to sea level rise, tidal flooding, and storm surge through different sea level rise scenarios.

Find more at the Palm Beach County Office of Resiliency's Mapping Tool page. 

Information for Property Owners

To find out your FEMA flood zone, flood insurance requirements, and building standards related to flood risk please visit the City’s Floodplain Management page. 

When making decisions about flood insurance or making rennovations, property owners in the City may want more information about their property’s risks related not only to FEMA’s flood maps but also considering impacts of climate change and sea level rise. One publicly available tool to understand an individual property’s risk is the First Street Foundation’s Flood Factor tool. Enter in a property address to get detailed information on the property’s flood risk over the next 30 years, reasons for the flood risk, and actions property owners can take to protect their property.