Vulnerability Ribbon

This map layer was created by the Cape Cod Commission GIS Department in Winter of 2018/2019 by geoprocessing and digitizing the most current Mean High Water (MHW) layer, Wetlands layer, and aerial photo to depict as accurately as possible the highest extent of Cape Cods High Water coastline. This newly created line was proportioned into 100 ft segments. These segments were coded with the following attributes: Salt Marsh, Undeveloped, Coastal Bank, Beach Owner, LittoralID, and RibbonScore. The first three fields characterize the presense or absense of the land form. The Beach Owner field is coded with "N": National Park Service, "T": Town Owned, and "O": Other. The LittoralID field is a unique identifier corresponding to the all of segments within a discreet shoreline system. RibbonScore is the cumulative score, ranging from -5 to 11, that was scored by GIS analysis based on each 100ft segments' relative vulnerability to major coastal threats. These conditions were chosen based on the South Carolina Beachfront Vulnerability Index (https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/stories/vulnerability-index.html). The factors affecting vulnerability include: distance of structures from the shoreline; presence of coastal beach, coastal dunes, barrier beaches, and/or salt marshes; long-term coastal erosion rates from USGS and MA CZM; presence of coastal engineering structures; beach nourishment projects (1995-2014); floodplain intersects with roads/structures; SLOSH zones intersect with roads/structures; and SLR scenarios intersect with roads/structures. Currently, the Cape Cod commission is ranking -5 to -1 as Low; 0 to 5 as Medium and 6-11 as High.