SACS Census Places identify high risk places with regards to coastal storm flooding risk. These designations are assigned by the results of the SACS Tier 1 Risk Assessment, and the SACS Tier 2 Economic Risk Assessment.

Tier 1 Risk Assessment

To identify areas with potential high-risk, the Tier 1 CRI was intersected with U.S. Census Bureau place boundaries using zonal statistics in GIS to determine both the acreage and intensity of potential risk for that area. Census places include both incorporated places and unincorporated census-designated places. Two thresholds were applied to determine if a census place is considered high-risk in either the existing condition, future condition, or both. At minimum, the combination of medium-high (amber) and high (red) composite risk needed to encompass: - Fifty acres of a census place for the continental United States. This is a conservative threshold, approximately equal to an area extending 1 mile along a shoreline and two blocks inland. For Puerto Rico, 5 acres were used as the threshold and, in the U.S Virgin Islands, the threshold was more qualitative, owing to the relatively small geographic area of its territories. - One-half of one percent of the total area (of a place).

Tier 2 Economic Risk Assessment

Economic risk ratings for existing and future condition risk are determined by natural break classifications of the expected annual damages of the aggregate of census block values within a census place. Low and Upper bound classification breaks are identified within the Tier 2 Economic Risk Assessment technical report. The natural breaks are relative to census places within each state or territory, except for Florida, where the natural break classifications are sorted by planning reach: FL_06 and FL_07, FL_08 and FL_09, FL_10 and FL_11, and FL_12 and FL_13.

SACS Census Places identify high risk places with regards to coastal storm flooding risk. These designations are assigned by the results of the SACS Tier 1 Risk Assessment, and the SACS Tier 2 Economic Risk Assessment.

Tier 1 Risk Assessment

To identify areas with potential high-risk, the Tier 1 CRI was intersected with U.S. Census Bureau place boundaries using zonal statistics in GIS to determine both the acreage and intensity of potential risk for that area. Census places include both incorporated places and unincorporated census-designated places. Two thresholds were applied to determine if a census place is considered high-risk in either the existing condition, future condition, or both. At minimum, the combination of medium-high (amber) and high (red) composite risk needed to encompass: - Fifty acres of a census place for the continental United States. This is a conservative threshold, approximately equal to an area extending 1 mile along a shoreline and two blocks inland. For Puerto Rico, 5 acres were used as the threshold and, in the U.S Virgin Islands, the threshold was more qualitative, owing to the relatively small geographic area of its territories. - One-half of one percent of the total area (of a place).

Tier 2 Economic Risk Assessment

Economic risk ratings for existing and future condition risk are determined by natural break classifications of the expected annual damages of the aggregate of census block values within a census place. Low and Upper bound classification breaks are identified within the Tier 2 Economic Risk Assessment technical report. The natural breaks are relative to census places within each state or territory, except for Florida, where the natural break classifications are sorted by planning reach: FL_06 and FL_07, FL_08 and FL_09, FL_10 and FL_11, and FL_12 and FL_13.