In the upcoming months, the Coastal Risk Atlas (CRA) project is being incorporated into the NOAA Coastal Services Center's (CSC) Digital Coast. The CRA project was developed to aid hurricane preparedness efforts by providing the data and methodology necessary to conduct vulnerability assessments for the coastal United States.

New elements of a community resilience and vulnerability assessment framework are appearing in the fall of 2009. The framework includes an assessment methodology and tools, planning applications, and technical assistance.

• Roadmap for Adapting to Coastal Risks Training and Technical Assistance ─ a stand-up training course that teaches participants how to design a local risk assessment and planning process using spatial and visualization data and techniques.

• County Snapshots ─ a web site with a simple mapping interface that provides quick views of a county's exposure to flood risks, including vulnerable population; community infrastructure, such as roads and critical facilities; and land cover.

• Coastal Inundation Toolkit ─ a web site and resources for managers and technical staff for understanding, determining exposure to, and mapping and visualizing coastal inundation. The toolkit was developed in collaboration with the Digital Coast partnership group (The Nature Conservancy, National Association of Counties, National States Geographic Information Council, Association of State Floodplain Managers, and Coastal States Organization).

• Community Resiliency Index (Critical Facilities Tool) ─ a Google map-based tool to visualize the critical facilities and roads that are exposed to flood risk for the purposes of conducting a community resilience assessment. The development of this tool is being coordinated with the NOAA Coastal Storms Program and the MS/AL Sea Grant Consortium. THis tool will be used with the community resiliency index assessment that will be piloted in the Gulf of Mexico. (Coming Soon!)