Reconstruction of long-term hourly sea level data for Prince Edward Island, Canada

Regional sea level rise has been regarded a key factor in understanding of climate change impact to coastal communities. As a vulnerable island to sea level rise and storm surges, the province of Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada lacks sufficient long-term island-wide historic record of sea level data. This has become a major challenge for further studies on coastal environments and climate change adaptation. To overcome this limitation, here we reconstruct a long-term hourly sea level dataset using the existing long-term records of limited permanent tide stations and short-term records of widely-distributed temporary stations. With comprehensive statistical analysis and modeling, the historical sea level records furthest between 1911 and 2023 are reconstructed with an hourly time step. This new dataset significantly extends the availability of long-term sea level data along with the shoreline of PEI, which can be used for further studies on coastal change assessment and coastal hazard adaptation in the context of climate change.