Visualization

Simulations of future climate suggest profiles of temperature and precipitation may differ significantly from those in the past. Future changes in climate, specifically changes in temperature, and the type, timing, and distribution of precipitation may lead to changes in the hydrologic cycle. As such, natural resource managers are in need of tools that can provide estimates of key components of the hydrologic cycle, uncertainty associated with the estimates, and limitations associated with the climate data used to estimate these components. To help address this need, the U.S.

The Elephant Builder system-mapping process helps policymakers, scientists, and citizens integrate their very different expertise into a shared map of the effects of climate change and discover novel adaptation solutions. Policy-makers, domain experts, and members of underrepresented groups—addresses a series of concrete questions tailored to their own expertise.

The Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) Ecosystem Services Model is an online tool that models potential impacts of climate change, land use change and water consumption alteration (i.e., population growth and water withdrawals) on flow volumes, water supply stress, and ecosystem productivity. The WaSSI Ecosystem Services Model can be used technically to model impacts in the United States, Mexico, Rwanda, and Burundi, but can also serve as an educational tool to demonstrate linkages between water use, climate change, water availability, and carbon storage.

The U.S. Drought Portal is an online portal that connects users to a variety of drought-, hydrological-, climate- and climate impact-related tools, products, regional programs, and resources. User-friendly and accessible products include current drought and climate monitoring platforms (e.g., the U.S. Drought Monitor), drought impact reporting and monitoring databases (e.g., the Drought Impacts Reporter), and forecasts related to drought and other climatological conditions.

The NWS Flood Inundation Map is an online tool that identifies the extent and severity of flood risk for a given location. Users select from a variety of national river gauges to view flood risk at a specific location. For a given area, users can explore and map three different types of flood data: inundation, flood categories, and current flood forecast.

The USGS Flood Inundation Mapper is an online flood mapping tool. Once a community develops a flood inundation map library through a collaborative effort with USGS, inundation maps are uploaded to the web-based mapper for broader viewing and access. Users can select a specific location and explore several different data sets, including current stream conditions, the estimated extent of historic flood events, and theoretical flooding scenarios.

Extreme Water Levels in an online product that allows users to analyze the likelihood that local tides will exceed a given elevation (mean high or low water) at different monthly and yearly time scales. Extreme Water Levels calculates these likelihoods based on over 30 years of monitoring data, and provides viewers with a rough idea of extreme tide heights expected every year, every other year, every 10 years, and every 100 years.

The Drought Risk Atlas is an online visualization tool that allows users to analyze and compare historical and contemporary droughts at the local level to better understand drought risk. The atlas allows users to explore past drought characteristics for specific geographic regions by compiling data from numerous monitoring stations; users can select a monitoring station within their area, as well as select other stations that exhibit similar precipitation patterns.