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The Area of Land Close to Sea Level in the District of Columbia

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The table below provides EPA's estimated uncertainty range of the area of dry land and nontidal wetlands below particular elevations, in square kilometers, as well as the area of tidal wetlands in the EPA wetlands data set. EPA used 1-meter contour data provided by the DC Office of Planning. The uncertainty range considers the accuracy of the elevation data that the EPA study used. For example, the District has between 1.6 and 3 square kilometers of dry land within one meter above spring high water

Like many urban areas, the nations capital has relatively little wetland. A printer-friendly file with the area of dry land and wetland vulnerable to sea level rise in Washington, D.C. is also available.


Low and High Estimates of the Area of Land Close to Sea Level: Washington, D.C.1
(square kilometers)









 
 


Meters above Spring High Water



          0.5
         1.0
     2.0
          3.0

           5.0



low
high

            low
high

         low
high

low
high

Low                  High
 
 

-------Cumulative (total) amount of dry land below a given elevation--------------
Washington, D.C.
0.0

1.6
3.0

2.8
4.4

5.5
7.4

8.9
11

16
18
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
Wetlands
Tidal

----Cumulative (total) amount of nontidal wetlands below a given elevation-----
Washington, D.C.
0.5

0.03
0.05

0.05
0.07

0.09
0.12

0.13
0.16

0.28
0.32
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 

Cumulative (total) amount of land below a given elevation
Dry Land
 

2
3

3
4

5
7

9
11

16
18
Nontidal Wetlands
 

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0
All Land
0

2
3

3
5

6
8

9
12

17
19

1. Low and high are an uncertainty range based on the contour interval and/or stated root mean square error (RMSE) of the input elevation data.  Calculations assume that half of the RMSE is random error and half is systematic error. For a discussion of these calculations, see the EPA report