Emily Himmelstoss is a Geologist at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, within the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program of the Natural Hazards Mission Area. Her work has focused on utilizing historical shoreline change analysis as a means of evaluating the influence of both geological processes and human activities on the morphology and historical evolution of beaches.
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)
Computer Software for Calculating Shoreline Change (or positional change of a boundary over time)
Coastal Change Hazards Portal
An accessible mapping interface to visualize and access the portfolio of Coastal Change Hazards assessments of extreme storm, coastal erosion, and sea-level change impact data.
Career History
For more than fifteen years Emily has led the development of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software. The current version released in December 2018 has been downloaded more than forty-eight thousand times and is used globally in support of critical coastal decision-making.
In her leadership role, she spearheads a project that offers practical technical expertise, methodologies, and data visualization support to ensure the sustainability of coastal change hazards assessment products at regional to national scales. Additionally, she actively supports initiatives that promote data sharing among research projects, and she has successfully coordinated a cross-center technical cooperative that serves as a valuable resource for various projects across the program.
Emily actively serves on the steering committee of a project that is dedicated to implementing an iterative user engagement strategy. This strategy aims to inform the communication of CMHRP science products by engaging in a collaborative codesign process with stakeholders. The primary objective of this endeavor is to make discovery and communication of CCH scientific data more effective, efficient, and meaningful for coastal hazards planning and preparedness.
One of her notable contributions was serving in a year-long detail as the acting Associate Program Coordinator for Science for CMHRP. Emily’s deep understanding of the Program provided strategic scientific perspective to balance the advancement of immediate scientific needs with long-term strategic plans.
She recently worked with a diverse team of research scientists, data experts, and science communicators to establish a collaborative framework for advancing coastal change hazards science. This framework aims to seamlessly integrate fundamental and applied coastal science research, as well as science-based data products, across the three science centers funded by the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. By promoting the exchange of innovative ideas, fostering collaborative project development, and aligning coastal research and products with programmatic requirements and stakeholder needs, the framework facilitates a more cohesive and effective approach to coastal science.
Emily’s previous work included participation in a national-scale project assessing Coastal Change Hazards, specifically working to compile a comprehensive database of historical shoreline positions that were used along with the DSAS software to compute shoreline change rates for the open coastal waters of the United States. These data and the new understanding of coastal change patterns they describe have been widely used to further scientific research and coastal management objectives. Since 2012 she has been part of a team developing and maintaining the USGS Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) portal, a web visualization platform. This website was the first attempt within the program to provide a thematic web-based mapping interface for federal and state agencies, NGOs, municipalities, and private citizens to visualize and access coastal change hazards assessments of extreme storm, coastal erosion, and sea-level change impact data.
Through her various roles and contributions, Emily continues to drive the advancement of coastal science, data dissemination, and stakeholder engagement. Her work exemplifies a commitment to bridging the gap between scientific research and practical applications, ultimately promoting effective coastal management, and enhancing resilience in the face of changing coastal hazards.
Science and Products
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)
State of Our Nation's Coast
Massachusetts Integrated Coastal Studies (MICS)
Long-Term Coastal Change
Empowering decision-makers: A dynamic web interface for running Bayesian networks
Science and Products
- Science
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)
Computer Software for Calculating Shoreline Change (or positional change of a boundary over time) The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) v5 software is an add-in to Esri ArcGIS desktop (10.4-10.7+) that enables a user to calculate rate-of-change statistics from multiple historical shoreline positions. It provides an automated method for establishing measurement locations, performs rate...State of Our Nation's Coast
Discover USGS products, tools, and data with the Coastal Science Navigator! The Coastal Science Navigator serves as a gateway to USGS Coastal Change Hazards resources and assists users in finding products and tools that will meet their specific needs.Massachusetts Integrated Coastal Studies (MICS)
Coastal erosion, intense storm events and sea-level rise pose threats to coastal communities and infrastructure. Managers and scientists often lack the high-resolution data needed to improve estimates of sediment abundance and movement, shoreline change, and seabed characteristics that influence coastal vulnerability. To address these and other needs the U.S. Geological Survey, in partnership with...Long-Term Coastal Change
Goals of this task include developing and improving coastal-change assessments and supporting long-term planning and decision making to ensure sustainable coastal economies, infrastructure, and ecosystems.Empowering decision-makers: A dynamic web interface for running Bayesian networks
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are at the forefront of research that is critical for decision-making, particularly through the development of models (Bayesian networks, or BNs) that forecast coastal change. The utility of these tools outside the scientific community has been limited because they rely on expensive, technical software and a moderate understanding of statistical analyses. W - Data
- Publications
- Software