Maps depicting likelihood of shore protection along the Massachusetts coast from a new article in Environmental Research Letters

A $2 million effort to map the likelihood of shore protection as sea level rises is summarized in a new article entitled "State and local governments plan for development of most land vulnerable to rising sea level along the U.S. Atlantic Coast." The maps divide coastal low lands into four categories: developed (shore protection almost certain), intermediate (shore protection likely), undeveloped (shore protection unlikely), and conservation (no shore protection). The Massachusetts portion of the study was conducted by Industrial Economics of Cambridge Massachusetts with the assistance of Jim O'Connel from Woods Hole. For further details, see the report by Hudgens et al.

Some of the maps from this study can be downloaded individually by clicking on a thumbnail map below; the entire set is available in a zipped file. The jpg files were designed for printing at 300 dots per inch on 8-1/2 X 11 inch paper. If you simply click on the links below and try to read them on your computer screen, some of them may look strange, depending on your internet browser. If so, please save the jpg map onto your computer's hard drive and then open the file with the program you normally use to read jpg files.