Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

The Coastal Science Navigator was created to ensure that partners and other stakeholders can easily locate USGS Coastal Change Hazards resources and identify which products may be of use to them. View the recording of the Navigator's public launch webinar to learn more, see a demo, and listen to a question and answer session.

The Coastal Change Hazards programmatic focus of the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP) supports the optimization of resources, improves the visibility of USGS coastal hazards science, and prioritizes research and products that meet stakeholder needs. As CMHRP staff work within the Coastal Change Hazards focus to provide meaningful and actionable information, a key consideration is how best to serve USGS science products so the information they provide is easy to find, navigate, understand, and apply. 

Using the Navigator 

The Coastal Science Navigator enables users to explore USGS coastal products including models, tools, web applications, geonarratives, and more.

Users can find relevant products using either the Guided Search or Filter Search functions presented on the Navigator’s home page. The Guided Search asks users a short series of questions to lead them to products and tools that may be useful for their specific needs. Users can then explore the applicable products or choose to refine the applied filters to narrow or widen their results. The Filter Search allows users to see all available products and apply filters to narrow the adjacent list to relevant tools and resources. A comprehensive summary is available for each product that provides a concise product description, a list of special features, contact information, a link to the product itself, and associated properties such as geographic scope, time scale, coastal hazard themes, and product function, type, and output.

Developed with User-Input 

The Coastal Science Navigator was developed by the USGS State of Our Nation’s Coast project using a Human-Centered Design approach. This problem-solving technique includes the target audience in the development process, which helps to create products that successfully meet their specific needs. 

Since 2020, the State of Our Nation’s Coast project has hosted listening sessions with coastal stakeholders to learn about their current needs, what tools and data types they use and why, any frustrations or limitations they experience with tools, and barriers they face in their coastal hazards work. The idea for the Coastal Science Navigator was born after synthesizing all stakeholder input and learning that coastal resource managers, long-term planners, and federal and state partners are overwhelmed with too many tools and have little time to find and adopt products that may better fit their needs. The Navigator helps address these issues by providing information about available coastal resources in one place and enabling users to curate a list of applicable products and tools. Throughout the Navigator’s development process, stakeholders continued to provide input and test various prototypes to ensure it would be useful and easy to use. 

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

After three years of moving iteratively and consciously through the Human-Centered Design innovation cycle—defining the audience, determining their needs, brainstorming solutions, developing prototypes, and testing the prototypes with stakeholders—the Coastal Science Navigator is now publicly available! 

The State of Our Nation’s Coast project will maintain and update the Coastal Science Navigator as needed to ensure it remains useful to users and connects coastal communities and federal and state partners with valuable scientific information. 

Did you miss the public launch webinar? No worries!  Watch the recording here: 

For more information on our development process and human-centered design approach, please visit our project page. Learn more about the State of Our Nation’s Coast Project.

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