Assessment of Coastal Impacts in Florida and Puerto Rico
Summary of Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program Activities related to Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2018 (P.L. 115-123) and 2019 (P.L. 116-20)
Coastal impact assessment: tasks and benefits 2018
Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria each significantly impacted coastal communities in Southeastern U.S. and Puerto Rico when they made landfall in August and September of 2017. In the wake of these hurricanes, USGS conducted several coastal hazard assessments to provide critical information to numerous Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), NOAA, FEMA, and the Department of Transportation, as well as State and local entities involved in coastal hazard preparedness and response. The 2018 Disaster Supplemental Appropriation enabled USGS to update existing coastal hazard and shoreline change assessments, upgrade assessment delivery tools to cloud-based hosting, and develop new storm-vulnerability assessments for coral reef-lined coasts.
After Hurricanes Irma and Maria, USGS collected lidar-derived coastal topography data (critical inputs for coastal hazard assessments) in Florida (Doran et al., 2020), Georgia (Kratzmann et al., 2021), and Puerto Rico (Henderson et al., 2021). These data allowed USGS to: (1) update long-term shoreline change assessments; (2) expand the national shoreline change dataset to include historical (Heslin et al., 2021a) and modern (Heslin et al., 2021b) shoreline change; and (3) produce more accurate scenario-based assessments of storm-induced coastal erosion (Doran et al. 2021; available on the USGS Coastal Change Hazards Portal) and real-time forecasts of coastal water levels and associated coastal change (available on the USGS/NOAA Total Water Level and Coastal Change Viewer). Local coastal planners, emergency management offices, and Federal agencies, including USACE and NOAA National Weather Service (NWS), utilize these products to identify coastal areas vulnerable to storm impacts, characterize cumulative coastal erosion threats, improve resilience for long-term hazards, and respond to future storm impacts. To ensure stakeholders have reliable access to this information, USGS upgraded the assessment delivery tools (i.e., CCH Portal and TWL/CC Viewer) to cloud-based hosting, which allows access to be more reliable during extreme weather events, power outages, and periods of high usage.
Coral reefs and coastal communities across Florida and Puerto Rico sustained widespread damage after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program led a collaborative effort with the University of California at Santa Cruz and NOAA to investigate the role of U.S. coral reefs in coastal hazard risk reduction— information that can help aid partners such as NOAA NWS, FEMA, USACE, and others involved in hurricane preparedness and response. One of the biggest limitations to advancing the use of natural defenses in coastal management is the lack of quantitative assessments of their engineering performance and social and economic benefits. To address this limitation, USGS quantified the risk reduction of coastal hazards provided by coral reef restoration in Florida and Puerto Rico (Storlazzi et al. 2021a), the impacts of projected coral reef degradation on coastal hazard risk in Florida (Storlazzi et al. 2021b), and the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on coastal hazard risk in Florida and Puerto Rico (Storlazzi et al. 2021c). Additionally, USGS is expanding assessments from sandy coastlines to coral-lined coasts. This requires new parameters, data types, and methodologies. USGS produced assessments (e.g., seafloor elevation-change analysis and stability) and future projections (to 2101) of reef elevation changes along the Florida Keys Reef Tract (listing of published data releases). These data will help inform partners like NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program and Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute on effective areas for reef restoration and contribute to vulnerability assessments for reef-lined coasts.
Return to 2018 Supplemental Appropriations Activities.
Additonal Resources:
Total Water Level and Coastal Change Forecast Viewer
Data Releases: Assessment of Coastal Impacts in Florida and Puerto Rico