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The Total Water Level and Coastal Change Forecast is being expanded to include barrier islands in Louisiana as part of the Disaster Supplemental 2022 following Hurricane Ida. A Team from the Saint Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center will install coastal monitoring cameras (CoastCams), pressure sensors and oceanographic buoys to test and improve the Forecast. The camera systems can be used to make quantitative observations of water levels, waves, surface currents, and shoreline position. The camera systems will be paired with pressure sensors to measure waves and water levels. The buoys will measure offshore wave conditions and wind speed and direction.

A team of social scientists from The Water Institute will join the USGS field team to conduct environmentally cued interviews with stakeholders while using high-definition video and precise GPS locations. The video will be coded to identify and map local knowledge related to total water levels and coastal change from past storm events and will be used to improve Forecast development and inform the development of Forecast visualizations.