Resilience of Coastal Wetlands to Sea Level Rise, CONUS, 1996-2100

This dataset provides information about the resilience of tidal wetlands to sea-level rise under three scenarios of global change. With rising seas, regularly inundated tidal wetlands may persist by vertical accretion of sediments (vertical resilience) and/or by migrating inland (lateral resilience), but local and regional conditions constrain these options. This dataset provides a vertical resilience index (VR) for coastal wetlands at 30 m resolution across the continental US predicted for 2100. The VR index was computed for current sea levels, local tidal dynamics, and coastal topography. It was also calculated for future sea levels predicted for 2100 by three IPCC Realized Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios: 2.5, 4.5, and 8.5. Moreover, the VR index incorporates estimated rates of sediment accretion. Relevant to lateral resiliency, the data include current and future tidal areas identified by mapping mean higher high water spring tide locations under the RCP scenarios. A shapefile outlining watershed units with tidal wetlands is included along with land cover classes for these areas for 1996 and 2011.