New STORMTOOLS Risk and Damage Assessment App now available

November 21, 2019, WAKEFIELD – A new mobile device app developed by the R.I. Shoreline Change Special Area Management Plan (Beach SAMP) team is now available to assist property owners, state agencies, permit applicants, municipal planners, industry users, and the public to view storm risk and damage assessment information on maps for Rhode Island coastal properties in the palm of their hands. The app is available for Android or iOS operating systems.

The STORMTOOLS Risk and Damage Assessment App, also referred to as the Coastal Environmental Risk Index (CERI) App, was developed this year by the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC)’s Beach SAMP team, led by CRMC Executive Director Grover Fugate, Dr. Malcolm Spaulding, Professor Emeritus, University of Rhode Island Ocean Engineering, and the URI Environmental Data Center (EDC) to provide coastal hazard information on a mobile device platform for ease of use. The app provides access to flood risk data and related damages for a user-selected structure based on the CERI model and the STORMTOOLS Design Elevation maps.

(The maps were previously developed by the Beach SAMP team with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA].)

Utilizing the mobile device’s GPS location or a user-selected location and the structure’s characteristics as classified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from their North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (2017), the app will return important information for the site such as elevation, the FEMA base flood elevation (BFE), and the STORMTOOLS flood surge depth (including wave height) for the selected sea level rise (options are present-day or zero, two, three, five, seven, and 10 feet).

Users can select the structure type and sea level rise scenario for the given location and then compare the FEMA BFE (which does not include future conditions from sea level rise) and the STORMTOOLS BFE that considers future conditions to determine any necessary increase in structural elevation to minimize risk from coastal storms into the future. The CERI App is publicly available at no cost to the users.

“The CERI App provides mobile device users instant access to assess likely coastal hazard damage risk, both now and in the future due to sea level rise,” said CRMC Executive Director Grover Fugate. “It also gives the user the ability to rapidly assess and modify structural designs to increase coastal adaptation and resiliency for the design life of the structure.”

Instructions on the app can be found on the CRMC web site. To download the app for your phone, simply go into your app store, search for STORMTOOLS, and download the free app.

There will be an overview and tutorial of the app as part of tonight’s Beach SAMP Stakeholder meeting, from 6-8:30 p.m. at the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus. Corless Auditorium. For more information, or to RSVP, go to https://www.beachsamp.org/beachsamp-stakeholder-meeting-november-21-2019/.