Here’s the newer version of the Portland map, with updated hillshading and elevation. It shows 215′ of sea level rise, the highest estimated by the IPCC.
This is the second in a series of sea-level-rise maps. Seattle was the first. There are more cities in various stages of completion, and I’ll be posting them as they are finished. Right now, I’m working on all the major North American West Coast cities, except for San Francisco, which has already been done.
What fascinates me the most about this project is the landforms, bays, seas and other geographies that emerge. In Seattle’s case, the landforms were compelling up close–the hills and valleys of Seattle’s glacial topography made amazing islands and passages. For Portland, it gets interesting as you zoom out–the inland seas, islands, and fjords are what make this map fascinating to me. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet had massive influences on the geologies of both cities, but only indirectly here. The sheet didn’t extend this far south, but the Missoula Floods swept through many times–the result of breaking ice dams from the glaciers upstream.
