Beta-version for a new web-based platform based on the Vanuatu Coastal Risk portal
The Challenge
Vanuatu is highly exposed to climate variability and change and has already been significantly affected by changing weather patterns and warming oceans. The Green Climate Fund Van-KIRAP Project in Vanuatu is delivering climate science to support decision makers and communities in Vanuatu to prepare for and adapt to climate variability and change. As part of that project, CSIRO, NGIS and FrontierSI partnered to deliver a demonstration version of a new web-based platform based on the existing Vanuatu Coastal Risk portal previously developed by NGIS and the CRCSI in 2013.
Partners
The project partners were NGIS and CSIRO.
The Solution
This project completed a conceptual plan and a demonstration version for the development of a web-based platform based on the existing Vanuatu Coastal Risk portal for digital delivery of climate information services.
- Conceptual design
Scoping study or conceptual plan of what the full portal will look like including detailed assessment and specification of technical requirements (hardware and software), data requirements (to populate the portal) and user functionality and capacity development needs.
- Demonstration version portal
A wire frame or beta-version of the portal based on the existing Vanuatu coastal risk tool but with ‘preliminary’ climate change (SLR) data layers to demonstrate utility (enhanced visualisation/geo-spatial referencing of projections) for sectoral impact assessments across relevant case studies for Espiritu Santo.
The demonstration portal was based on the Vanuatu Coastal Risk portal which allows users to see what the Vanuatu coastline may look like in the years up to 2100. It is an interactive map tool designed to communicate coastal inundation associated with sea level rise to the year 2100. Using Google Earth Engine technology, it allows you to investigate the extent of coastal inundation using the latest 3D models of the Vanuatu coastline. Data was captured using airborne LiDAR technology to create detailed digital elevation models, which are then combined with ‘bucket-fill’ inundation modelling to create the map-based visualisations.
Impact
Van-KIRAP will increase the ability of decision makers, development partners, communities and individuals across five target sectors (agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure, tourism and water) to plan for and respond to the long- and short-term impacts of climate change. This project developed and delivered a demonstration climate information service tool that when fully developed, can be used to minimise the impacts of climate variability and change on lives, livelihoods, natural resources, property and infrastructure. The inundation models for sea level rise will allow government ministries to focus policies, planning and development for climate change mitigation through localised coastal risk analysis. The portal will provide the people of Vanuatu with valuable tools for the planning of emergency response and protection against storm surge by implementing measures such as sea walls and mangroves. The next phase of the project, building this portal, is currently being scoped.
Contact
Please contact us at contact@frontiersi.com.au or Project Manager Phil Delaney at pdelaney@frontiersi.com.au
