Presentation on the Coastal Adaptation to Sea Level Rise Tool (COAST) by Sam Merrill of the New England Environmental Finance Center (April 21, 2011 at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT/6 pm GMT).  Most GIS tools developed to respond to the challenges of climate change focus on the damage caused by sea level rise (SLR) or increased storm surges and do not calculate or visualize the economic benefits of the adaptive actions municipalities could take in response to different levels of SLR and storm surge.  The Coastal Adaptation to Sea Level Rise Tool (COAST) approach assesses costs and benefits of adaptations to SLR scenarios by incorporating a variety of existing tools and datasets, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' depth-damage functions; NOAA's Sea, Lake, and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model; and other flood methods, as well as projected SLR scenarios over time, property values, and infrastructure costs, into a comprehensive GIS-based picture of potential economic damage.  COAST displays the location-specific avoided costs associated with particular adaptive actions, along with the costs incurred by implementing those actions, to assist coastal municipalities in selecting appropriate strategies.  COAST also has applications for inland areas that include analyzing and displaying the economic impacts of any potential hazard event that can be mapped (e.g., extreme rainfall, fire) as well as the social and environmental impacts of those events. COAST bundles processes in Excel and the ArcGIS ArcGlobe application in the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension. It has been designed to eventually become a stand-alone ArcGIS Desktop extension.  Learn more about COAST at http://efc.muskie.usm.maine.edu/docs/coast.arcuser.pdf.  Register for the webinar at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/501237225.