94 research outputs found
Catch the King Tide 2025: All King Tide Data
No full textAssociated Publications
Loftis, J.D. and Katragadda, S. (2025). Best Practices for Flood Model Validation using Community Science. 2025 ESRI User Conference Session 1467, 104653. URL
Loftis, J.D. (2022). Exploring Latent Verification Methods for Inundation Forecasting Models through Remote Sensing Networks and Community Science. Oceans 2022 MTS/IEEE Hampton Roads, IEEE. DOI
Mulholland, M.R., Macías-Tapia, A., and Loftis, J.D. (2022). Water quality impacts from tidal flooding in Southern Chesapeake Bay. Oceans 2022 MTS/IEEE Hampton Roads, IEEE. DOI
Rawat, P., Anuar, K.A., Yusuf, J.E.W., Loftis, J.D., and Blake, R.N. (2021). Communicating and co-producing information with stakeholders Examples of participatory mapping approaches related to sea-level rise risks and impacts. Communicating Climate Change: Making Environmental Messaging Accessible, Routledge, p. 79-96. DOI | Book DOI
Loftis, J.D., Mitchell, M., Schatt, D., Forrest, D.R., Wang, H.V., Mayfield, D., and Stiles, W.A. (2019). Validating an Operational Flood Forecast Model Using Citizen Science in Hampton Roads, VA, USA. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 7, 242. DOI"Catch the King" is a community science GPS flood extent mapping effort centered in Tidewater Virginia, USA, that seeks to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extent with the goal of validating and improving inundation prediction models like the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Tidewatch Map (https://cmap2.vims.edu/SCHISM/TidewatchViewer.html). This 36-hour storm tide inundation forecast model is based on the Center for Coastal Resources Management’s open-source SCHISM hydrodynamic model’s operational outputs, updated every 12 hours at noon and midnight (EST). Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app (available on iOS and Android) in regular intervals along the water's edge.
Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS. Catch the King 2025 took take place on the weekend of October 10-12, 2025, during some of the highest astronomical tides of the year, which were harmonically forecasted to be 3.22-3.63 ft. above MLLW at Sewells Point in Norfolk, VA. The king tide took place at many different times and occurred at different peak amplitudes throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia's coastal region, yet each was forecasted to be the highest tides of the year for those areas.
Catch the King 2025 had 167 volunteers map 27,120 high water marks using Wetlands Watch's Sea Level Rise App during the king tides on October 10-12. The volunteer breakdown for Catch the King in 2025 revealed that the most GPS data points (by region; 6,892 pins) were mapped by 35 community scientists in Virginia Beach. Tied by number of volunteer flood mappers, Norfolk (35 mappers) collected the second-most high water marks, with 5,963, in terms of total mapped GPS flooding extents. VA's Middle Peninsula region collected the third-greatest quantity of data across a very wide area with the help of 29 volunteers mapping 4,433 high water marks throughout the king tide weekend. Here is a daily breakdown of data collected during the 2025 Catch the King Tide Weekend:
36 people mapped early, from October 6-9, documenting 4,765 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 124 time stamped geotagged pictures
61 people on Friday, October 10, mapped 7,395 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 341 time stamped geotagged pictures
77 people on Saturday, October 11, mapped 7,139 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 211 time stamped geotagged pictures
64 people on Sunday, October 12, mapped 7,821 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 200 time stamped geotagged picturesVolunteers of 'Catch the King' Tide 2025 freely collected this dataset using the Sea Level Rise mobile application developed by Wetlands Watch and Concursive, Inc. Catch the King 2025 was sponsored by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and AECOM, and Catch the King 2025 was graciously granted media support by WHRO Public Media, The Virginian-Pilot, the Daily Press, and the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency. Volunteer coordination and training of community scientists was orchestrated/managed by Stephanie Letourneau at Wetlands Watch and a dedicated team of tide captains and teachers. GPS volunteer data were shared with W&M/VIMS for public dissemination via Concursive, Inc. and some schools and volunteers directly
2016 Sea Level Rise App Data Archive: All Data
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Associated Publications
Loftis, J.D. (2025). GPS Positional Accuracy Comparisons Using Community Science Data for Flood Forecast Model Validation Applications. OCEANS 2025 – Great Lakes, Chicago, IL, 1–12. 10.23919/OCEANS59106.2025.11245158
Loftis, J.D. and Katragadda, S. (2025). Best Practices for Flood Model Validation using Community Science. 2025 ESRI User Conference Session 1467, 104653.
Mulholland, M.R., Macías-Tapia, A., and Loftis, J.D. (2022). Water quality impacts from tidal flooding in Southern Chesapeake Bay. Oceans 2022 MTS/IEEE Hampton Roads, IEEE. 10.1109/OCEANS47191.2022.9977117
Loftis, J.D., Mitchell, M., Schatt, D., Forrest, D.R., Wang, H.V., Mayfield, D., and Stiles, W.A. (2019). Validating an Operational Flood Forecast Model Using Citizen Science in Hampton Roads, VA, USA. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 7, 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7080242The Sea Level Rise mobile application is a free app on iOS and Android platforms that seeks to map tidal inundation and flooding attributed to storm surge. This archived GIS shape file dataset was from the beta release of the App on iOS, and it features GPS inundation extent data points collected worldwide including known inundation trouble spots via an early beta version of the free Sea Level Rise mobile app during Hurricane Hermine and Hurricane Matthew, as the two most significant flooding events of 2016 in Hampton Roads, VA. Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app in regular intervals along the water's edge. These data were used as the basis to eventually found Catch the King, the world’s largest environmental survey. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS
2014 Sea Level Rise App Data Archive: All Data
No full textAssociated Publications
Loftis, J.D. (2025). GPS Positional Accuracy Comparisons Using Community Science Data for Flood Forecast Model Validation Applications. OCEANS 2025 – Great Lakes, Chicago, IL, 1–12. 10.23919/OCEANS59106.2025.11245158
Loftis, J.D. and Katragadda, S. (2025). Best Practices for Flood Model Validation using Community Science. 2025 ESRI User Conference Session 1467, 104653.
Mulholland, M.R., Macías-Tapia, A., and Loftis, J.D. (2022). Water quality impacts from tidal flooding in Southern Chesapeake Bay. Oceans 2022 MTS/IEEE Hampton Roads, IEEE. 10.1109/OCEANS47191.2022.9977117
Loftis, J.D., Mitchell, M., Schatt, D., Forrest, D.R., Wang, H.V., Mayfield, D., and Stiles, W.A. (2019). Validating an Operational Flood Forecast Model Using Citizen Science in Hampton Roads, VA, USA. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 7, 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7080242The Sea Level Rise mobile application is a free app on iOS and Android platforms that seeks to map tidal inundation and flooding attributed to storm surge. This archived GIS shape file dataset was from the alpha release of the App on iOS, and it features 309 GPS inundation extent data points collected in Hampton Roads, VA, via an early alpha version of the free Sea Level Rise mobile app during 3 flooding events: 1. Hurricane Arthur on July 5, 2014, 2. King tide on Sept 10, 2014, and 3. King tide on October 9, 2014. Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app in regular intervals along the water's edge. These data were used as the basis to eventually found Catch the King, the world’s largest environmental survey. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS
2015 Sea Level Rise App Data Archive: All Data
No full textLoftis, J.D. (2025). GPS Positional Accuracy Comparisons Using Community Science Data for Flood Forecast Model Validation Applications. OCEANS 2025 – Great Lakes, Chicago, IL, 1–12. 10.23919/OCEANS59106.2025.11245158
Loftis, J.D. and Katragadda, S. (2025). Best Practices for Flood Model Validation using Community Science. 2025 ESRI User Conference Session 1467, 104653.
Loftis, J.D., Mitchell, M., Schatt, D., Forrest, D.R., Wang, H.V., Mayfield, D., and Stiles, W.A. (2019). Validating an Operational Flood Forecast Model Using Citizen Science in Hampton Roads, VA, USA. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 7, 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7080242The Sea Level Rise mobile application is a free app on iOS and Android platforms that seeks to map tidal inundation and flooding attributed to storm surge. This archived GIS shape file dataset was from the beta release of the App on iOS, and it features 3,515 GPS inundation extent data points collected in Norfolk, VA, via an early beta version of the free Sea Level Rise mobile app during 6 daily flooding events occurring every high tide from September 23-28, during the most significant flooding event of 2015 in Hampton Roads, VA. The event was caused by a nor’easter merging with Hurricane Joaquin. Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app in regular intervals along the water's edge. These data were used as the basis to eventually found Catch the King, the world’s largest environmental survey. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS
Catch the King Tide 2024: All King Tide Data
No full text"Catch the King" is a community science GPS flood extent mapping effort centered in Tidewater Virginia, USA, that seeks to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extent with the goal of validating and improving inundation prediction models like the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Tidewatch Map (https://cmap2.vims.edu/SCHISM/TidewatchViewer.html). This 36-hour storm tide inundation forecast model is based on the Center for Coastal Resources Management’s open-source SCHISM hydrodynamic model’s operational outputs, updated every 12 hours at noon and midnight (EST). Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app (available on iOS and Android) in regular intervals along the water's edge. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS. Catch the King 2024 took take place on the weekend of October 17-20, 2024, during some of the highest astronomical tides of the year, which were harmonically forecasted to be 3.58-3.66 ft. above MLLW at Sewells Point in Norfolk, VA. The king tide took place at many different times and occurred at different peak amplitudes throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia's coastal region, yet each was forecasted to be the highest tides of the year for those areas. Catch the King 2024 had 187 volunteers map 22,845 high water marks using Wetlands Watch's Sea Level Rise App during the king tides on October 17-20. The volunteer breakdown for Catch the King in 2024 revealed that Norfolk, VA collected 5,082 GPS-recorded high water marks among 46 volunteers. Many of our community scientists in this region are Master Naturalists and Master Gardeners, so a special thank you goes out to these groups of diligent volunteers who helped collect data in unique places in rural tidewater VA. 44 volunteers in Virginia Beach came in second by collecting 3,505 high water marks. We had 9 different regions collect over 1,000 high water marks throughout the king tide weekend, so a big thank you goes out to our dedicated volunteers for their help in mapping the king tide this year! Here is a daily breakdown of data collected during the 2024 Catch the King Tide Weekend: 55 people on Thursday, October 17, mapped 3,916 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 112 time stamped geotagged pictures 53 people on Friday, October 18, mapped 3,838 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 123 time stamped geotagged pictures 101 people on Saturday, October 19, mapped 10,183 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 277 time stamped geotagged pictures 67 people on Sunday, October 20, mapped 4,908 GPS maximum flood extents and captured 105 time stamped geotagged picturesVirginia Institute of Marine ScienceCenter for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM
Catch the King Tide 2017: All King Tide Data
No full text"Catch the King" was a citizen science GPS data collection effort centered in Hampton Roads, VA, that sought to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extents with the goal of validating and improving predictive models for future forecasting of increasingly pervasive "nuisance" flooding. GPS data points were collected by volunteers to effectively breadcrumb/trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the Sea Level Rise App every few steps along the water's edge during the high tide on the morning of Nov. 5th, 2017. Response from the event's dedicated volunteers, fueled by the local media partners' coverage leading up to the event, and over 35 separate volunteer training events held all over Hampton Roads resulted in 510 known participants collecting 53,006 time-stamped GPS maximum flooding extent measurements and 1,126 geotagged photographs of the King Tide flooding during the event. In the months following the event, 187 people emailed Dr. Loftis with additional GPS data points missing from the original event as a few volunteers noticed their data missing from the map as he presented it and as it was published in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press and among other media sources nationally. These data were collected through separate, concomitant, private events established with the Sea Level Rise app on November 5th, 2017, and are included to total 59,718 data points and 1582 photographs from 722 individual volunteers. Click the collapsible arrows below for an infographic or video breakdown of these statistics.Virginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Catch the King Tide 2017 Data: Newport News, Virginia
No full text"Catch the King" was a citizen science GPS data collection effort centered in Hampton Roads, VA, that sought to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extents with the goal of validating and improving predictive models for future forecasting of increasingly pervasive "nuisance" flooding. GPS data points were collected by volunteers to effectively breadcrumb/trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the Sea Level Rise App every few steps along the water's edge during the high tide on the morning of Nov. 5th, 2017. Response from the event's dedicated volunteers, fueled by the local media partners' coverage leading up to the event, and over 35 separate volunteer training events held all over Hampton Roads resulted in 510 known participants collecting 53,006 time-stamped GPS maximum flooding extent measurements and 1,126 geotagged photographs of the King Tide flooding during the event. In the months following the event, 187 people emailed Dr. Loftis with additional GPS data points missing from the original event as a few volunteers noticed their data missing from the map as he presented it and as it was published in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press and among other media sources nationally. These data were collected through separate, concomitant, private events established with the Sea Level Rise app on November 5th, 2017, and are included to total 59,718 data points and 1582 photographs from 722 individual volunteers. Click the collapsible arrows below for an infographic or video breakdown of these statistics.Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceCenter for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM
Catch the King Tide 2017 Data: Hampton, Virginia
No full text"Catch the King" was a citizen science GPS data collection effort centered in Hampton Roads, VA, that sought to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extents with the goal of validating and improving predictive models for future forecasting of increasingly pervasive "nuisance" flooding. GPS data points were collected by volunteers to effectively breadcrumb/trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the Sea Level Rise App every few steps along the water's edge during the high tide on the morning of Nov. 5th, 2017. Response from the event's dedicated volunteers, fueled by the local media partners' coverage leading up to the event, and over 35 separate volunteer training events held all over Hampton Roads resulted in 510 known participants collecting 53,006 time-stamped GPS maximum flooding extent measurements and 1,126 geotagged photographs of the King Tide flooding during the event. In the months following the event, 187 people emailed Dr. Loftis with additional GPS data points missing from the original event as a few volunteers noticed their data missing from the map as he presented it and as it was published in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press and among other media sources nationally. These data were collected through separate, concomitant, private events established with the Sea Level Rise app on November 5th, 2017, and are included to total 59,718 data points and 1582 photographs from 722 individual volunteers. Click the collapsible arrows below for an infographic or video breakdown of these statistics.Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceCenter for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM
Catch the King Tide 2017 Data: Gloucester & Mathews, Virginia
No full text"Catch the King" was a citizen science GPS data collection effort centered in Hampton Roads, VA, that sought to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extents with the goal of validating and improving predictive models for future forecasting of increasingly pervasive "nuisance" flooding. GPS data points were collected by volunteers to effectively breadcrumb/trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the Sea Level Rise App every few steps along the water's edge during the high tide on the morning of Nov. 5th, 2017. Response from the event's dedicated volunteers, fueled by the local media partners' coverage leading up to the event, and over 35 separate volunteer training events held all over Hampton Roads resulted in 510 known participants collecting 53,006 time-stamped GPS maximum flooding extent measurements and 1,126 geotagged photographs of the King Tide flooding during the event. In the months following the event, 187 people emailed Dr. Loftis with additional GPS data points missing from the original event as a few volunteers noticed their data missing from the map as he presented it and as it was published in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press and among other media sources nationally. These data were collected through separate, concomitant, private events established with the Sea Level Rise app on November 5th, 2017, and are included to total 59,718 data points and 1582 photographs from 722 individual volunteers. Click the collapsible arrows below for an infographic or video breakdown of these statistics.Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceCenter for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM
Catch the King Tide 2017 Data: Williamsburg & James City County, Virginia
No full text"Catch the King" was a citizen science GPS data collection effort centered in Hampton Roads, VA, that sought to map the King Tide's maximum inundation extents with the goal of validating and improving predictive models for future forecasting of increasingly pervasive "nuisance" flooding. GPS data points were collected by volunteers to effectively breadcrumb/trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the Sea Level Rise App every few steps along the water's edge during the high tide on the morning of Nov. 5th, 2017. Response from the event's dedicated volunteers, fueled by the local media partners' coverage leading up to the event, and over 35 separate volunteer training events held all over Hampton Roads resulted in 510 known participants collecting 53,006 time-stamped GPS maximum flooding extent measurements and 1,126 geotagged photographs of the King Tide flooding during the event. In the months following the event, 187 people emailed Dr. Loftis with additional GPS data points missing from the original event as a few volunteers noticed their data missing from the map as he presented it and as it was published in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press and among other media sources nationally. These data were collected through separate, concomitant, private events established with the Sea Level Rise app on November 5th, 2017, and are included to total 59,718 data points and 1582 photographs from 722 individual volunteers. Click the collapsible arrows below for an infographic or video breakdown of these statistics.Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceCenter for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM
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