Created by Benedikt Groß, Speculative Sea Level Explorer is an application made using Processing that explores the possible effects flooding should the sea levels change as a result of global warming. The software also allows you to reverse the scenario, create dry land, go back in time. What interests Benedikt the most are not the catastrophes rather he is attempting to imagine the implications of such transformed/speculative landscapes.
Because I really enjoyed to browse this “alternative” worlds, I decided to revisit the project to create a series of animations of various “dramatic” changes of a world reshaped by a monumental rise or decline of the sea level.
The simulations are based on an elevation data set called “SRTM30 Plus” by the Scripps Institution Of Oceanography, which is an extended version of the original NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(often abbreviated SRTM, land elevation only) enhanced with bathymetry (underwater evaluation).
The App runs on OSX, Windows and Linux. You can download a zip-file which contains the plattform specific application e.g. “application.macosx.zip”. Source code and the zip files are available on github.com/b-g/Speculative-Sea-Level-Explorer.
Hillshading based on hillshade.cpp by Matthew Perry. Developed With: Processing, unfolding, controlP5.
