Arcanium Worked example

Dare County, North Carolina · the Outer Banks

Half of this county goes under. The Index says which half was worth holding.

868 square kilometers of dry land on the Outer Banks, every one of them measured. On the high scenario at 2055, 445 tiles are gone — and 190 become new waterfront. Not one tile in this county is unaffected, in any scenario, in any decade we model. The water decides what happens here. The Arcanium Index™ decides whether it matters.

868tiles of dry land, 1 km each
445submerge — high scenario, 2055
190become new waterfront
0tiles unaffected, in any scenario
Static

This page is a snapshot, baked 2026-08-26. It draws from the same run a subscriber opens on the live map — nothing here is illustrative, and nothing here is modelled twice.

view
scenario
decade
submergence risk new waterfront (hypothesis) transition zone (hypothesis) coastal — holds open water today: not drawn

Where the county's best ground ends up

 

FateTilesShare of land Median IndexOf the top 87

 

The water is the event

Every tile that is dry today is reclassified — or not — for each scenario and each decade: forecast chronic inundation in red, the hypothesized new waterfront behind it, the transition zone where the shore moves materially closer without arriving, and the ground that holds.

Step the toggles and watch the red band advance. Tiles that are open water already are not drawn at all: water today is not a forecast.

The Index is the price tag

Knowing a kilometer floods is half a decision. The other half is what that kilometer was worth — and the Index answers it on one absolute scale, so a 35.1 here means the same thing as a 35.1 anywhere else on Earth.

Switch the view to the Index and the same footprint is scored rather than classified. The table above holds the two together, and it moves every time you change a scenario.

Why the edge is jagged

The stair-step edge is the honest statement of resolution. The model works at one kilometer — about 250 acres a tile. A smooth coastline would claim parcel-level precision the model does not hold, and a claim you cannot defend at closing is worth less than no claim at all.

Scenario and decade are on screen at all times, because "at risk" without them is not a statement anyone can act on.

What this does not claim

Nothing here is a parcel-level opinion, a valuation, or investment advice. It is a measurement of ground, at one kilometer, on a scale that holds still.

This is one county, 5 scenarios, 3 decades. The published map covers every region we have scored, ranked site by site, with the same sea-level model over all of it — and anywhere we have not published can be commissioned.

See plans and pricing →

© 2026 Quantum Ridge Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Arcanium™ and the Arcanium Index™ are trademarks of Quantum Ridge Systems, Inc.