Justin Birchler
Justin Birchler is a Physical Scientist at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.
For the last decade, he has been part of the National Assessment of Storm-Induced Coastal Change Hazards project. His work in this project includes:
- Producing real-time forecasts and scenario-based predictions of coastal total water level and geomorphic change during storms.
- Analysis of lidar-derived measures of coastal change.
- Installing and maintaining USGS CoastCam sites and processing imagery obtained from coastcams.
Professional Experience
Physical Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal & Marine Geology Science Center, 2017 to present
Researcher IV, Cherokee Nation Technologies contracted to the U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal & Marine Science Center, 2014 to 2017
Education and Certifications
M.S. Marine Science, College of William & Mary
B.S. Marine Science, Coastal Carolina University
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 23
SWASH Model Water Level Timeseries at Wrightsville Beach, NC during Hurricane Isaias, August 2020
This data release contains model output of water level elevation time series generated by the Simulating WAves till SHore (SWASH) model to simulate storm-induced water levels from Hurricane Isaias at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina (NC), USA. Water levels were simulated along three different cross-shore profiles over a period of 10 hours around the peak of the storm from 2300 GMT on August 3, 2
USGS CoastCam at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico: 2018-2019 Calibration and GNSS Topography Survey Data
A digital video camera was installed at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico (PR) and faced northeast along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from February 1, 2019, to July 15, 2019, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to utiliz
USGS CoastCam at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i: 2018 Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
A digital video camera was installed at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i (HI) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from June 26, 2018, to September 20, 2018, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. One such product is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore array of pixels from
USGS CoastCam at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i: 2018 Calibration and GNSS Topography Survey Data
A digital video camera was installed at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i (HI) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from June 26, 2018, to September 20, 2018, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to utili
USGS CoastCam at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico: Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
A digital video camera was installed at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico (PR) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from August 27, 2019, to March 10, 2020, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. One such product is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore array of pixels fr
USGS CoastCam at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico: Calibration and GNSS Topography Survey Data
A digital video camera was installed at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico (PR), and faced west to view the beach and water offshore. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from August 27, 2019, to March 10, 2020, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO)
USGS CoastCam at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico: 2018-2019 Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
A digital video camera was installed at Isla Verde Beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR) and faced northeast along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from February 1, 2019, to July 15, 2019, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. One such product is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore arra
USGS CoastCam at Sand Key, Florida: Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
Two digital video cameras were installed at Sand Key, Florida (FL), facing south (camera 1) and north (camera 2) along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from 2018 to 2022, the cameras collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. For camera 2, one such product that is created is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a c
USGS CoastCam at Sand Key, Florida: Calibration Data
Two digital video cameras were installed at Sand Key, Florida (FL), facing south (camera 1) and north (camera 2) along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from 2018 to 2022, the cameras collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to uti
Lidar-derived Beach Volumes and Shoreline Change for New Jersey and New York
This data release defines beach volumes and shoreline change for each 10-meter-wide profile along the New Jersey and New York coastline. The profiles are derived from light detection and ranging (lidar)-digital elevation models (DEMs). These data support the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)-funded project entitled “Monitoring Hurricane Sandy Beach and Marsh Resilience in New York and N
Beach Profile Data Collected From Sand Key Beach in Clearwater, Florida
This dataset, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS SPCMSC), provides beach profile data collected at Sand Key Beach in Clearwater, Florida. Data were collected on foot by a person equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna affixed to a surveying backpack outfitted for surveying location and elevation data (XYZ) along pre-determi
USGS Madeira Beach, Florida CoastCam Imagery and Calibration Data
A digital video camera was installed at Madeira Beach, Florida (FL) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from 2017 to 2022, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to utilize imagery to make quantitati
Wave runup and total water level observations from time series imagery at several sites with varying nearshore morphologies
Coastal imaging systems have been developed to measure wave runup and total water level (TWL) at the shoreline, which is a key metric for assessing coastal flooding and erosion. However, extracting quantitative measurements from coastal images has typically been done through the laborious task of hand-digitization of wave runup timestacks. Timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore ar
Authors
Mark L. Buckley, Daniel Buscombe, Justin J. Birchler, Margaret Louise Palmsten, Eric Swanson, Jenna A. Brown, Michael Christopher Itzkin, Curt Storlazzi, Shawn R. Harrison
Data-driven, multi-model workflow suggests strong influence from hurricanes on the generation of turbidity currents in the Gulf of Mexico
Turbidity currents deliver sediment rapidly from the continental shelf to the slope and beyond; and can be triggered by processes such as shelf resuspension during oceanic storms; mass failure of slope deposits due to sediment- and wave-pressure loadings; and localized events that grow into sustained currents via self-amplifying ignition. Because these operate over multiple spatial and temporal sc
Authors
Courtney K. Harris, Jaia Syvitski, H.G. Arango, E. H. Meiburg, Sagy Cohen, C.J. Jenkins, Justin J. Birchler, E. W. H. Hutton, T. A. Kniskern, S. Radhakrishnan, Guillermo Auad
Hurricane Matthew: Predictions, observations, and an analysis of coastal change
Hurricane Matthew, the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the 2016 hurricane season, made land-fall south of McClellanville, S.C., around 1500 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on October 8, 2016. Hurricane Matthew affected the States of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina along the U.S. Atlantic coastline. Numerous barrier islands were breached, and the erosion of beaches and dunes o
Authors
Justin J. Birchler, Kara S. Doran, Joseph W. Long, Hilary F. Stockdon
Sediment transport model including short-lived radioisotopes: Model description and idealized test cases
Geochronologies derived from sediment cores in coastal locations are often used to infer event bed characteristics such as deposit thicknesses and accumulation rates. Such studies commonly use naturally occurring, short-lived radioisotopes, such as Beryllium-7 (7Be) and Thorium-234 (234Th), to study depositional and post-depositional processes. These radioisotope activities, however, are not gener
Authors
Justin J. Birchler, Courtney K. Harris, Christopher R. Sherwood, Tara A Kniskern
Numerical model of geochronological tracers for deposition and reworking applied to the Mississippi subaqueous delta
Measurements of naturally occurring, short-lived radioisotopes from sediment cores on the Mississippi subaqueous delta have been used to infer event bed characteristics such as depositional thicknesses and accumulation rates. Specifically, the presence of Beryllium-7 (7Be) indicates recent riverine-derived terrestrial sediment deposition; while Thorium-234 (234Th) provides evidence of recent suspe
Authors
Justin J. Birchler, Courtney K. Harris, Tara A. Kniskern, Christopher R. Sherwood
Separating the land from the sea: image segmentation in support of coastal hazards research and community early warning systems
This proposal would fund the testing of quantitative methods for extracting total water level from imagery, with add-on applications including satellite shoreline detection, digital stream gauges, and flood detection. This project supports national scale USGS coastal hazards products.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 23
SWASH Model Water Level Timeseries at Wrightsville Beach, NC during Hurricane Isaias, August 2020
This data release contains model output of water level elevation time series generated by the Simulating WAves till SHore (SWASH) model to simulate storm-induced water levels from Hurricane Isaias at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina (NC), USA. Water levels were simulated along three different cross-shore profiles over a period of 10 hours around the peak of the storm from 2300 GMT on August 3, 2
USGS CoastCam at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico: 2018-2019 Calibration and GNSS Topography Survey Data
A digital video camera was installed at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico (PR) and faced northeast along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from February 1, 2019, to July 15, 2019, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to utiliz
USGS CoastCam at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i: 2018 Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
A digital video camera was installed at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i (HI) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from June 26, 2018, to September 20, 2018, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. One such product is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore array of pixels from
USGS CoastCam at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i: 2018 Calibration and GNSS Topography Survey Data
A digital video camera was installed at Waiakāne, Moloka'i, Hawai'i (HI) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from June 26, 2018, to September 20, 2018, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to utili
USGS CoastCam at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico: Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
A digital video camera was installed at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico (PR) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from August 27, 2019, to March 10, 2020, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. One such product is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore array of pixels fr
USGS CoastCam at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico: Calibration and GNSS Topography Survey Data
A digital video camera was installed at Tres Palmas, Rincón, Puerto Rico (PR), and faced west to view the beach and water offshore. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from August 27, 2019, to March 10, 2020, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO)
USGS CoastCam at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico: 2018-2019 Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
A digital video camera was installed at Isla Verde Beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR) and faced northeast along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from February 1, 2019, to July 15, 2019, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. One such product is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore arra
USGS CoastCam at Sand Key, Florida: Timestack Imagery and Coordinate Data
Two digital video cameras were installed at Sand Key, Florida (FL), facing south (camera 1) and north (camera 2) along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from 2018 to 2022, the cameras collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. For camera 2, one such product that is created is a "runup timestack". Runup timestacks are images created by sampling a c
USGS CoastCam at Sand Key, Florida: Calibration Data
Two digital video cameras were installed at Sand Key, Florida (FL), facing south (camera 1) and north (camera 2) along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from 2018 to 2022, the cameras collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to uti
Lidar-derived Beach Volumes and Shoreline Change for New Jersey and New York
This data release defines beach volumes and shoreline change for each 10-meter-wide profile along the New Jersey and New York coastline. The profiles are derived from light detection and ranging (lidar)-digital elevation models (DEMs). These data support the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)-funded project entitled “Monitoring Hurricane Sandy Beach and Marsh Resilience in New York and N
Beach Profile Data Collected From Sand Key Beach in Clearwater, Florida
This dataset, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS SPCMSC), provides beach profile data collected at Sand Key Beach in Clearwater, Florida. Data were collected on foot by a person equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna affixed to a surveying backpack outfitted for surveying location and elevation data (XYZ) along pre-determi
USGS Madeira Beach, Florida CoastCam Imagery and Calibration Data
A digital video camera was installed at Madeira Beach, Florida (FL) and faced west along the beach. Every hour during daylight hours, daily from 2017 to 2022, the camera collected raw video and produced snapshots and time-averaged image products. This data release includes the necessary intrinsic orientation (IO) and extrinsic orientation (EO) calibration data to utilize imagery to make quantitati
Wave runup and total water level observations from time series imagery at several sites with varying nearshore morphologies
Coastal imaging systems have been developed to measure wave runup and total water level (TWL) at the shoreline, which is a key metric for assessing coastal flooding and erosion. However, extracting quantitative measurements from coastal images has typically been done through the laborious task of hand-digitization of wave runup timestacks. Timestacks are images created by sampling a cross-shore ar
Authors
Mark L. Buckley, Daniel Buscombe, Justin J. Birchler, Margaret Louise Palmsten, Eric Swanson, Jenna A. Brown, Michael Christopher Itzkin, Curt Storlazzi, Shawn R. Harrison
Data-driven, multi-model workflow suggests strong influence from hurricanes on the generation of turbidity currents in the Gulf of Mexico
Turbidity currents deliver sediment rapidly from the continental shelf to the slope and beyond; and can be triggered by processes such as shelf resuspension during oceanic storms; mass failure of slope deposits due to sediment- and wave-pressure loadings; and localized events that grow into sustained currents via self-amplifying ignition. Because these operate over multiple spatial and temporal sc
Authors
Courtney K. Harris, Jaia Syvitski, H.G. Arango, E. H. Meiburg, Sagy Cohen, C.J. Jenkins, Justin J. Birchler, E. W. H. Hutton, T. A. Kniskern, S. Radhakrishnan, Guillermo Auad
Hurricane Matthew: Predictions, observations, and an analysis of coastal change
Hurricane Matthew, the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the 2016 hurricane season, made land-fall south of McClellanville, S.C., around 1500 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on October 8, 2016. Hurricane Matthew affected the States of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina along the U.S. Atlantic coastline. Numerous barrier islands were breached, and the erosion of beaches and dunes o
Authors
Justin J. Birchler, Kara S. Doran, Joseph W. Long, Hilary F. Stockdon
Sediment transport model including short-lived radioisotopes: Model description and idealized test cases
Geochronologies derived from sediment cores in coastal locations are often used to infer event bed characteristics such as deposit thicknesses and accumulation rates. Such studies commonly use naturally occurring, short-lived radioisotopes, such as Beryllium-7 (7Be) and Thorium-234 (234Th), to study depositional and post-depositional processes. These radioisotope activities, however, are not gener
Authors
Justin J. Birchler, Courtney K. Harris, Christopher R. Sherwood, Tara A Kniskern
Numerical model of geochronological tracers for deposition and reworking applied to the Mississippi subaqueous delta
Measurements of naturally occurring, short-lived radioisotopes from sediment cores on the Mississippi subaqueous delta have been used to infer event bed characteristics such as depositional thicknesses and accumulation rates. Specifically, the presence of Beryllium-7 (7Be) indicates recent riverine-derived terrestrial sediment deposition; while Thorium-234 (234Th) provides evidence of recent suspe
Authors
Justin J. Birchler, Courtney K. Harris, Tara A. Kniskern, Christopher R. Sherwood
Separating the land from the sea: image segmentation in support of coastal hazards research and community early warning systems
This proposal would fund the testing of quantitative methods for extracting total water level from imagery, with add-on applications including satellite shoreline detection, digital stream gauges, and flood detection. This project supports national scale USGS coastal hazards products.