Assess Flood Risks

The Quick Flood Assessment Tool automates what used to be a time-consuming task—calculating current and future coastal flood frequency and impacts at user-defined thresholds.

You will need to specify four inputs as you go through the tool. Guidance will be provided.

The closest NOAA tide gauge (selected via map)
A coastal flood threshold
Tolerable number of days of high tide flooding
A set of sea level rise projections (2017 or 2022)

Select a Location

Start by specifying a coastal community of interest. Data for the Great Lakes are currently unavailable.
This tool uses data from NOAA's network of coastal tide gauges. The closest tide gauge to your community of interest has been selected. If you would prefer to use a different gauge, select the corresponding location marker on the map.

Specify Your Coastal Flood Threshold

Now that you've selected a location marker:

Use the map to zoom in to your location.
Drag the slider to see the potential impact of rising water levels. Any of the levels could be a critical threshold – the point at which impacts start to occur.
After identifying your coastal flooding threshold , set it using the slider or enter it manually. Units are feet above mean higher high water (MHHW).

For reference, the 100-year (or 1% annual chance) water level at this location is x.x ft, which represents a major coastal flooding event for your area.

ft of water level rise.

Enter your coastal flood threshold and select the value’s vertical datum. Assessment results will be based on the selected datum.

ft of water level rise.

A valid threshold is between 0.1 and 10 feet or 0.1 and 3 meters.

MHHW NAVD88 MSL

Feet Meters

Note: The map is disabled when using the Advanced View

Already Know Your Threshold?

If you know your exact threshold, use the Advanced View for more options.

Specify High-Tide Flooding Days Threshold

High-tide flooding mostly affects low-lying areas and exposed infrastructure, such as roads, water systems, and private or commercial properties. Currently, high-tide flooding may not occur for your area, or if it does, it might have minimal impact and may be bearable. With sea level rise, high-tide flooding is occurring more frequently.

Currently in this location the high tide flooding threshold is x.x ft MHHW. In 2019, there were 0 high tide flooding days in your community.

Guidance: Enter the number of days per year when it may become a problem in your community (i.e., when it will greatly impact business or travel). If you're unsure, start by entering 24 days, which is an average of two times per month. You can always come back and change the value.

number of high tide flooding days per year.

Select Sea Level Rise Projections

Choose a set of sea level rise projections below, then select Finish to create your assessment report.

Note: The timing and amount of sea level rise affects flood frequency. The Sea Level Rise Technical Report (2017), created by NOAA and its federal agency partners, was updated in 2022 to reflect the most up-to-date science available.

Click here NOS SLR Report to learn more about this report and how these projections compare with those from the 2017 report.

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