How-to Use

1. When the app opens, you are presented with two maps

   • The top/left one is a 3D scene
   • The bottom/right one is 2D map
   • Both are linked together, and moving one will move the other
   • Both the maps show the downtown core of Vancouver City, Canada

2. Above the maps, you are presented with buttons to change the water level rise scenarios

   • By default, 5 degrees celsius is active
   • You can turn on as many or as few scenarios as you want to see
   • If the button is colored as white, the scenario is not visible on the maps
   • If the button is colored as blue, the scenario is visible on the maps

3. To interact with the map, you can just Left-Click to drag the view around, zoom in/out

   • If you Right-Click the 3D map, you can rotate its compass direction, and angle of view
   • Additionally you can expand either of the maps to see a more detailed view
   • Use the address locator, to search for a place of interest or your own address

4. What to see?

   • As you change the scenarios, both the 3D and 2D maps will update appropriately
   • You can zoom in the 3D scene and exactly see how high the water level could rise, how much land goes under water, and how many buildings could go under water
   • You can compare the 3D scene with the 2D scene, which shows the exact outline of where the water could rise up to. The buildings are color coded for which ones will be affected by the highest water level visible

5. To know more about the buildings, you can click them on the 2D map to see a pop-up of information which includes:

   • Building ID
   • Building Deveopment Type
   • Building Zone ID
   • The temperature that the water level has to rise to for it to get affected
   • An approximate number of residents that could be affected
   • An approximate total cost of the building value considered as economic loss

6. Go too far away from the study area?

   • You can click the “Go to Study Area” button to bring you right back to where the affected buildings are

7. Below both the maps, there are summary statistics for important information grouped by each water level scenario

Why Water Level Rise Matters?

Image Source: The Star

Sea level rise is a major global issue. On recent news published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the sea level rising rate is accelerating and it may increase by 65cm by the end of the century Source. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey calculated that around 500 million people will be affected by the year 2100 around the world Source. Two major drivers are cause this phenomenon, ice melting in polar regions and atmosphere warming. Both of them closely related with global warming.

Fortunately, not everything is bad news. Several international organizations and governments are currently working on strategies to prevent and mitigate the effects of sea level rise. More and more non-government organizations and citizen groups are engaging into decision making process and taking action on climate change. The citizen is now recognized as a key player who can positively contribute in many ways to mitigate climate change Source. Over last years, we have seen plenty of examples on how the so called “citizen science” leverages geographic knowledge to support citizens in their initiatives Source.

For the ECCE 2018 Challenge, our team created an ArcGIS Web App called Azure. Its main goals are listed below:

• Provide geographic insights to citizens about the sea level rise issue due to climate change.
• Allow users to see two simultaneous 2D and 3D visualizations of how their urban environment might be affected by several scenarios of sea level rise.
• Offer querying capabilities to look if a specific address location will be affected, as well as the estimated number of people and economic losses per building.

Community Feedback

We would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give about Water Level Rise and the experience of using this app.

Team Water^3D

We are a team of enthusiastic students at the the University of Waterloo. We decided to participate in the ECCE App Challenge because it is an opportunity for us to learn, strengthen our skills, and have fun together!

Team Members (Left to Right): Juan Garcia, Anam Rahman, Jaydeep Mistry, Stephanie Wen