Catch the King Tide 2024: All King Tide Data
Loftis, Jon Derek
Loftis, Jon Derek
Abstract
"Catch the King" is a community science GPS flood extent mapping effort centered in Tidewater Virginia, USA, that seeks to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extent with the goal of validating and improving inundation prediction models like the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Tidewatch Map (https://cmap2.vims.edu/SCHISM/TidewatchViewer.html). This 36-hour storm tide inundation forecast model is based on the Center for Coastal Resources Management’s open-source SCHISM hydrodynamic model’s operational outputs, updated every 12 hours at noon and midnight (EST). Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app (available on iOS and Android) in regular intervals along the water's edge. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS. Catch the King 2024 took take place on the weekend of October 17-20, 2024, during some of the highest astronomical tides of the year, which were harmonically forecasted to be 3.58-3.66 ft. above MLLW at Sewells Point in Norfolk, VA. The king tide took place at many different times and occurred at different peak amplitudes throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia's coastal region, yet each was forecasted to be the highest tides of the year for those areas. Catch the King 2024 had 187 volunteers map 22,845 high water marks using Wetlands Watch's Sea Level Rise App during the king tides on October 17-20. The volunteer breakdown for Catch the King in 2024 revealed that Norfolk, VA collected 5,082 GPS-recorded high water marks among 46 volunteers. Many of our community scientists in this region are Master Naturalists and Master Gardeners, so a special thank you goes out to these groups of diligent volunteers who helped collect data in unique places in rural tidewater VA. 44 volunteers in Virginia Beach came in second by collecting 3,505 high water marks. We had 9 different regions collect over 1,000 high water marks throughout the king tide weekend, so a big thank you goes out to our dedicated volunteers for their help in mapping the king tide this year! Here is a daily breakdown of data collected during the 2024 Catch the King Tide Weekend: 55 people on Thursday, October 17, mapped 3,916 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 112 time stamped geotagged pictures 53 people on Friday, October 18, mapped 3,838 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 123 time stamped geotagged pictures 101 people on Saturday, October 19, mapped 10,183 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 277 time stamped geotagged pictures 67 people on Sunday, October 20, mapped 4,908 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 105 time stamped geotagged pictures
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Date
2024-11-13
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Keywords
Sea Level Rise, Tides, Flooding, Virginia, Citizen Science, Community Science, Inundation Data
Citation
Loftis, Jon Derek, "Catch the King Tide 2024: All King Tide Data" (2024). Data. William & Mary. https://doi.org/10.25773/ywyp-3452
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Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM)
Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.25773/ywyp-3452