Coastal Climate Vulnerability Index for Canadian Harbors

The Coastal Infrastructure Vulnerability Index (CIVI) provides a numerical assessment of climate change vulnerability for small craft harbor sites across Canada. It integrates three component sub-indices: Environmental Exposure, Infrastructure, and Socio-economic, using geospatial coastline data. The dataset includes projected sea level rise, wave height, wind speed, and changes in sea ice coverage.

Use Cases

• Analyze projected sea level rise for decades 2030-2100 to prioritize infrastructure adaptation investments for harbor sites.
• Model coastal flood risk by correlating mean annual maximum wind speed and wave height data with harbor locations.
• Assess climate-driven changes in maritime operations using the change in weeks with sea ice coverage greater than 50% between the 1970s and 2000s.
• Combine the Environmental Exposure, Infrastructure, and Socio-economic sub-indices to rank harbor vulnerability for long-term planning.

Strengths

• Integrates multiple long-term climate projections, including sea level rise for eight decades from 2030 to 2100.
• Derives wind speed from a 23-year modeled hindcast (1990-2012) and wave height from a 25-year hindcast (1990-2014).
• Spatial coastline component is based on the authoritative CanVec 1:50,000 hydrographic layer of Canada.

Limitations

• Specific data structure (rows, columns, sample) is unavailable, hindering immediate technical analysis.
• Sea ice coverage change analysis is limited to Atlantic and Arctic Canada, excluding the Pacific coast.
• Wind and wave data uses different grid resolutions (10-minute vs. 30-minute) for different regions, complicating uniform analysis.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, developed jointly by DFO Science Branch, Small Craft Harbours Program, and the Economic Analysis and Statistics Directorate.

Collection Method

Spatial analysis combining CanVec coastline data with modeled climate variables: IPCC AR5 sea level projections, IFREMER/WAVEWATCH III wave hindcasts, NCEP CFSR wind data, and Canadian Ice Service ice coverage data.

Time Range

Climate projections to 2100; wind hindcast (1990-2012); wave hindcast (1990-2014); ice coverage comparison (1970s vs. 2000s).

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-03-24, though the underlying climate projections and hindcast data have defined historical end dates.

Geography

Coastal areas of Canada, including Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic regions.