Roger Warburton: Images of a flooded Nantucket

Marty Hylton’s image of Easy and Broad streets, Nantucket, in 2040

His image of the same intersection in 2100

From ecoRI News (ecori.org)

NEWPORT, R.I. — Marty Hylton is an architect by training. Therefore, unlike many climate scientists, his images are visually arresting.

Consider Hylton’s image of Easy and Broad streets in Nantucket, Mass.

The audience at the Sept. 18 lecture was stunned to learn that the above image and those below weren’t photographs, but digital reconstructions of Hylton’s data.

Hylton was lecturing in Newport, aka “The City by the Sea,’’ about the lessons learned from the Resilient Nantucket model. His lecture was co-sponsored by the city and the Newport Restoration Foundation.

He was charming with a dry sense of humor that kept the audience enthralled. He admitted that his family owned a coal mine in Kentucky and that he is now working to pay off the carbon dioxide debt he feels responsible for.

Resilient Nantucket is an initiative to digitally document the historic town, its waterfront, and Brandt Point. The initiative is a collaboration of the town of Nantucket, the Nantucket Preservation Trust and the University of Florida’s Preservation Institute Nantucket.

Nantucket has one of the nation’s largest historic landmark districts, with more than 800 structures from before 1860. Hylton is working with Nantucket to protect its valuable historical, cultural, and architectural assets. This work requires identifying and understanding threats from sea-level rise, raising awareness, and engaging residents and stakeholders.

Hylton and his students spent the summer on Nantucket using laser scanners to collect data on building and land coordinates and elevations. These are augmented by students traipsing around and visually collecting data on foundations, structural materials, utility systems and the age and condition of the buildings.

These data inform the development and implementation of adaptation strategies. The 3-D visualizations, in particular, help to communicate sea-level rise projections, their impacts, and to raise awareness of threats.

The project has already resulted in a series of striking sea-level rise visualizations.

The above scenario is based on conservative National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate projections that are considered the gold standard in climate models.

The dramatic images here are just part of the story. An equally important aspect of Hylton’s work is to help the Town of Nantucket assess flood vulnerabilities of the various building types.

After his lecture, Hylton was peppered with questions about how his work applied to Newport. He patiently answered questions for another hour.

In the room, there was palpable sense that Newport was behind Nantucket. Hylton had provided valuable lessons.

Roger Warburton, Ph.D., is a Newport resident.