The digital coast

Coastal areas face concentrated climate change hazards and vulnerabilities. To address this, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is using AI to expand its data support for coastal communities' climate resilience efforts. Through enhanced data processing and feature extraction, NOAA has improved its imagery resolution from 30 meters to 1 meter and now updates it annually instead of every 5 years. This provides communities with detailed, current land cover and land use data that enables local mapping and modeling to track real-world changes.

As use of more detailed, up-to-date data spreads, more communities will be better-equipped to identify vulnerable populations, property, and infrastructure. This improved understanding will provide them with clearer insights about the most effective measures for climate resilience and adaptation efforts.