Integrated Land Change Monitoring

Located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, the Channel Islands are a chain of eight islands where years of isolation has created unique fauna, flora, and archeological resources. Five of the islands are part of Channel Islands National Park (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara), and the waters surrounding these islands make up the Channel Islands National...

Accurate, high-resolution elevation information is vital to understanding the natural hazards that can impact the highly populated San Francisco Bay area, such as sea-level rise, winter storms, cliff erosion, and other coastal hazards. The San Francisco Bay estuary three-dimensional (3D) topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) was developed in collaboration between U.S. Geological Survey...

Pamlico Sound is ecologically important as it is the second largest estuary in the United States, and is the largest lagoon on the U.S. east coast. The sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks, a series of low, sandy barrier islands that are vulnerable to hurricane storm surge and sea-level rise. The seamless high-resolution topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) for...

Accurate, high-resolution elevation information is vital to understanding the highly dynamic northern Gulf of America coast, the location of North America’s largest delta system and the focus of one of the largest coastal restoration and flood risk reduction efforts in the United States. The northern Gulf of America topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) was developed in collaboration...

With an estimated elevation of only 3-meters above sea level, the Majuro Atoll, capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), is extremely vulnerable to sea-level rise, tsunamis, storm surge, and coastal flooding that could impact the sustainability of the infrastructure, groundwater, and ecosystems. Located in the northern tropical Pacific Ocean, the waters surrounding the Majuro Atoll...

Mobile Bay is ecologically important as it is the fourth largest estuary in the United States. The Mobile Bay topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) was developed in collaboration between U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) and USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) using a combination of 71 disparate topographic and bathymetric datasets collected from...

Hurricane Sandy severely impacted the New Jersey/Delaware coast, altering the topography and ecosystems of this heavily populated region. In response to the storm, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program in collaboration with USGS National Geospatial Program , and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed three-dimensional (3D) topobathymetric elevation...

Coastal shoreline mapping is a particularly complex issue because of the dynamic nature of water levels at the land-water interface, the various tidal vertical datums in use, and the spatial scale of the shoreline delineation. In addition, the definition of a shoreline varies depending on whether the shoreline will be used for nautical charts and navigation, delineating the legal federal and state...

Most airborne topographic light detection and ranging (lidar) systems operate within the near-infrared spectrum. Laser pulses from these systems frequently are absorbed by water and do not generate reflected returns on water bodies in the resulting lidar point cloud. Thus, the absence of lidar returns over water is useful for identifying inland water bodies that are not connected by any path to...

Hydrologic connectivity of light detection and ranging (lidar)-derived elevation data is critical for coastal hydrologic modeling applications. However, unless hydrologically-enforced, raised structures (i.e. bridges, roads overlaying culverts) can block overland flow to coastal waters. Because highly detailed lidar-derived elevation surfaces include features such as bridge decks and road fill...

Coastal topographic and bathymetric (topobathymetric) data with high spatial resolution (1-meter or better) and high vertical accuracy are needed to assess the vulnerability of Pacific Islands to climate change impacts, including sea-level rise. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, low-lying atolls in the Pacific Ocean are extremely vulnerable to king tide events...

The USGS Coastal National Elevation Database Applications Project organized a workshop in cooperation with the College of Staten Island-City University of New York to discuss storm surge modeling and get input from scientists across a broad community. The workshop, held on April 22-23, 2014 on the College of Staten Island campus, is part of a larger project intended to enhance topobathymetric...