Usedom – Coastal Development and Implementation of Geo-Information in a Decision Support Frame

Due to the risk of coastal flooding as a consequence of climate change and associated sea level rise, there is a great need to assess the vulnerability of coastal zones with special respect to land use and resource management. The area of investigation is the Island of Usedom at the German-Polish border. A high-resolution elevation model of Usedom was generated to analyse the consequences of mean sea level rise. The modelled flood-prone areas were intersected with different data sets. The resulting maps and tables show the economically and ecologically affected areas as well as classification maps. 13 % of the total island area would be affected by a sea level rise of 25 cm or 28 % in the case of an 80 cm sea level rise. 70 % of the land at risk is used for agriculture. Finally, the results were used to assess the vulnerability of Usedom´s coast.