External tool only
Hazard Exposure Reporting and Analytics (HERA)
USGS · released 2017, expanded since
Visit Hazard Exposure Reporting and Analytics (HERA)
A USGS exposure-analytics tool built on top of CoSMoS hazard zones (coastal flooding, groundwater, and shoreline change), which this atlas already maps directly. Users pick an SLR-plus-storm scenario, and HERA adds population (Census), economic asset (InfoGroup), parcel value, land cover (NLCD), and infrastructure (roads, rail, critical facilities) exposure estimates, comparable across communities and scenarios. It provides exposure estimates rather than new flood-extent geometry. External tool only: its data is public domain, but it is redundant with the CoSMoS layer, so it won’t get its own map layer.
General Information
- Geographic scope within coastal California
- U.S. coastal communities, including California
- Tool release year and updates
- 2017, expanded since
Projected Flood Information
- Annual flood risk
- No
- Annual flood risk (various return periods)
- No
- Base flood elevation
- No
- Coastal groundwater flooding
- Yes
- Erosion projections
- No
- FEMA flood zones
- No
- High tide flooding thresholds (minor/moderate/major)
- No
- King tide
- No
- Mapping uncertainty / confidence layers
- No
- Marsh migration space
- No
- Near-100-year storm scenario
- No
- Shoreline erosion
- Yes
- Storm surge / extreme tide
- Yes
- Stormwater / compound flooding
- No
- Wave run-up
- No
Shoreline Processes
- Coastal flood thresholds
- No
- Coastal groundwater
- Yes
- Compound flooding with stormwater runoff
- No
- Dynamic hydrodynamic modeling
- No
- Erosion / shoreline change
- No
- Habitat-based risk reduction
- No
- High tide flooding
- No
- Hurricane storm surge
- No
- King tide
- No
- Levee overtopping
- No
- Marsh migration
- No
- Marsh migration / habitat change
- No
- Regulatory base flood elevation
- No
- Riverine and coastal flood zones
- No
- SLR inundation
- Yes
- Shoreline erosion
- Yes
- Shoreline overtopping
- No
- Storm surge / extreme tide
- Yes
- Tide-gauge monitoring
- No
- Wave run-up
- No
Exposure Analysis Provided on Flooding Impacts to Assets
- Critical facilities
- Yes
- Economic / property value
- Yes
- Infrastructure & buildings
- Yes
- Natural resources / habitats
- No
- Population / demographics
- Yes
Data, Reports, and Summary Information Available
- Reports, summary info, or other analyses available for download
- Interactive dashboards plus downloadable community-level exposure datasets.
General Information Regarding Sea Level Rise Model
- Base sea level rise model
- USGS hazard-zone scenarios combining SLR increments with storm categories.
Strengths and Limitations
- Top 3 strengths
- Strong community-level socioeconomic exposure analysis, not just flood extent
- Lets users directly compare exposure across multiple communities
- Covers flooding, groundwater, and erosion hazards in one place
- Top 3 limitations
- Requires picking a scenario first, which assumes some baseline knowledge
- National tool, so hyper-local California factors may be generalized
- Dashboard-heavy interface takes more clicks than a simple map