Data

JSON fields and downloads

The processed data used to populate each County Profile is saved as a per-county JSON, which can be downloaded from each county profile chooser page. The top-level of each file includes the fips code and name for each county (slug, county), the coverage level (tier), the snapshot date, the method number, the generated time and date, and the license and suggested citation.

New snapshots are generated when data is updated, and historical snapshots are saved by date for reference.

License and attribution

Like the content of this site, license for the generated figures, meaning the output of how they're selected, arranged, and processed, is CC BY 4.0. The underlying data comes mostly from public domain data; per-source license details are available on the licenses page. Some of the text on the County Profiles topics is used verbatim from the NOAA tool, which is permissible since it's in the public domain.

Each JSON file's attribution field holds the recommended citation for that county's snapshot and follows APA format:

Note the citation URL references the dated county profile page which is where the specific dated JSON data file lives.

Gauges

The gauge block covers the sea level heights projections at intermediate, intermediate-high, and high scenarios in "feet" (for units) at the assigned tide gauge (id/name), pulled from Ocean Protection Council (OPC) 2024 California Sea Level Rise Guidance Appendix 2; flood-only counties have a null gauge. This data supports the "When is the time to act?" section.

Sources

The JSON also includes a list of all of the sources used to generate the file including the human-readable label; the url to each source's home page or description; and each source's vintage (what period the source covers), when it was retrieved (when the script grabs the data), and when it was verified (when the tool last confirmed the data is still accessible).

Topics

The topics block covers one entry per topic: flood hazard, sea level rise (slr), total-economy, marine-economy. Each topic includes if it is available and if not the reason listed below. Available topics get a null reason. Available topics have entries for each of the sections within the topic, each with:

• A unique key mirroring the headline (e.g. critical-facilities for "Flooded Facilities Can't Provide Critical Services").
• If the section is available and the reason if not, like the topic.
• A list of the sources used.
• The calculated or imputed data used to populate each section.
• And a use field with flags for where and how figures and charts show up for printing or display. This has no bearing on the data and can generally be ignored.

Section data

The shape of the data section varies based on the topic. Flood hazard and sea level rise topics are mostly straightforward counts as described on the methodology page. Sea level rise distinguishes between ocean-connected (counts) and ocean-connected plus low-lying areas (countsWithLow) exposure. To get only low-lying area exposure, subtract the two. Economy topic data are derived as described on the Economy page, with the following confidence indicators for each figure:

A plain number

A figure built only from published values has no est object and no suppressed flag. To keep only figures built from published values, drop any figure that has either.

est

The figure was partly imputed (estimated). share is the imputed fraction of its value (0 to 1), weakShare the part imputed at the two weakest steps of the ladder (4 and 5), and step the weakest step used. The page marks it ≈ when share is 25% or more.

"suppressed": true

The figure is withheld, and reason says why: weak-share, no-data, gdp-unreproducible or no-calibration-anchor (each explained in Withheld reasons on the Economy page).

A total that leaves a withheld or partial component out is stored as {value, partial: true}, where value is the sum of the components that are present.

Estimation

The estimation block contains estimation/imputation thresholds and tourism/recreation shoreline share tuning values and methods (tourismShoreShare) for the economy sections.

Withheld values, zeros and gaps

Reasoning behind missing values is explicitly marked in the tool:

• Zero values are shown and indicated. It might not be obvious, for example on some of the bar charts; it shows up in the data table when printing and in the JSON.
• Withheld figures are indicated as such due to one of the reasons listed in Withheld reasons on the Economy page and given in the JSON reason field.
• Estimated figures, indicated with a ≈ mark, a diagonal hatch on a bar, and a dashed ring on a dot, are partly built from values the source withholds for confidentiality; more details in Estimated notes on the Economy page.
• Unavailable indicates no data is present, along with the reason why.

Topic matrix

Not every county has all four topics; the table below lists all counties, coverage, and reason for exclusion if any. Exclusion explanations are listed below the table.

Reasons for topic exclusion

In addition to being listed on the table, the topic exclusion reasons are also listed in each snapshot's JSON.

Outside ENOW outside-enow

Outside the economic county definition used by NOAA's Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW), so there is no economy data for this county.

Not shore-adjacent not-shore-adjacent

On ENOW's county list but outside its shore-adjacent county definition, so the total-economy figures, which cover shore-adjacent counties, do not include it.

No SLR extent no-slr-extent

No significant sea level rise inundation extent in this county, so there is nothing to intersect. The flood-only tier's rule; also the section-level reason if NOAA's data has no polygon in a county that should have some.

No NFHL coverage no-nfhl-coverage

No effective FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer coverage for this county.

Not in source source-geography

The source dataset does not extend to this geography.