Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study investigated how projected changes in Seattle's sea-level rise (SLR) may influence the city's resilience to flooding. Seattle's current vulnerability and resilience to SLR inundation was compared to future sea-level rise scenarios. Areas of lowest resilience were determined using the Spatially Explicit Resilience-Vulnerability Model (SERV) as well as the Geographically Weighted Spatially Explicit Resilience-Vulnerability Model (GWSERV) and a GIS overlay of Seattle's exposure to SLR. The GWSERV model provides more detailed and localized results making it more useful to stakeholders. Unlike previous models, GWSERV results allow stakeholders to direct hazard mitigation and recovery efforts to specific census blocks as well as on specific populations. Results indicate that if local climate change predictions are realized, Seattle's resilience to SLR will change very little because of the rapid change in elevation along the coastlines.