Abstract
Advances in geospatial technologies have stream-lined data collection, analysis, and visualization for environmental and coastal resource management. These advances have helped to enhance geospatial education and outreach application development for issues related to coastal flooding and sea level rise. Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are allowing real-time interactions with geospatial data through mobile devices that enhances what is typically seen in web and desktop applications. Augmented reality technologies provide the capability to overlay simulated geo-referenced data to the real world with a mobile device’s integrated camera. The current efforts of this project are coupling augmented reality and geospatial technologies to allow users to visualize simulated coastal flooding. A simplistic linear superposition (or “bathtub”) model is currently being used to simulate the flooding on the landscape and is built on QL2 lidar collected in 2015. The augmented reality application allows the user to increase and decrease simulated inundation levels on the actual landscape as they navigate the area through the camera on their mobile device. Future project efforts are focused on improving the model for specific areas of the landscape with high-resolution lidar collected with unmanned aerial systems and enhanced three-dimensional (3D) structures. This application will provide improved education, decision-making, and management of coastal resources and how they may be impacted by flooding and seal level rise.
