Coastal Change

The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California, has been growing our post-fire research contributions since 2017, through studies of post-fire sediment movement that address the Natural Hazards Mission Area objectives for understanding wildfire hazards.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) uses observations of flooding in communities to monitor hazard conditions and support research by the USGS and its partners into a variety of hazard processes in Alaska. Local observations of flooding at a flood staffs are used to document flood elevations, improve flood models, and support floodplain management decisions.

Software for calculating positional boundary change over time The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 6 is a standalone application that calculates shoreline or boundary change over time. The GIS of a user’s choice is used to prepare the data for DSAS. Like previous versions, DSAS v.6 enables a user to calculate rate-of-change statistics from multiple historical shoreline positions...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) uses a nationwide network of coastal observing cameras, or CoastCams, to monitor coastal conditions in near real-time and support research by the USGS and its partners into a variety of coastal processes and hazards. The most recent CoastCam images are made publicly available within minutes of data collection and can be accessed using the links below or by...

As part of the Stakeholder Engagement for Natural Hazards Investigations in the Caribbean (SENHIC) project, the USGS team aims to connect with scientists who are conducting natural hazards research in the Caribbean, build relationships with natural hazards researchers based in the Caribbean and those specializing in the region, and develop a framework for collaborating with international partners.

USGS staff are connecting with natural hazards researchers based in the Caribbean and those specializing in the region to find out which natural hazards are of primary concern, learn about their mitigation efforts, and explore the potential for research collaboration.

We use remote-sensing technologies—such as aerial photography, satellite imagery, structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry, and lidar (laser-based surveying)—to measure coastal change along U.S. shorelines.

Our research goals are to provide the scientific information, knowledge, and tools required to ensure that decisions about land and resource use, management practices, and future development in the coastal zone and adjacent watersheds can be evaluated with a complete understanding of the probable effects on coastal ecosystems and communities, and a full assessment of their vulnerability to natural...

The impacts of climate change and sea-level rise around the Pacific and Arctic Oceans can vary tremendously. Thus far the vast majority of national and international impact assessments and models of coastal climate change have focused on low-relief coastlines that are not near seismically active zones. Furthermore, the degree to which extreme waves and wind will add further stress to coastal...

The west coast of the United States is extremely complex and changeable because of tectonic activity, mountain building, and land subsidence. These active environments pose a major challenge for accurately assessing climate change impacts, since models were historically developed for more passive sandy coasts.

We are combining ocean, engineering, ecologic, social, and economic modeling to provide a high-resolution, rigorous, spatially-explicit valuation of the coastal flood protection benefits provided by coral reefs and the cost effectiveness of reef restoration for enhancing those benefits.

Sea level is rising faster than projected in the western Pacific, so understanding how wave-driven coastal flooding will affect inhabited, low-lying islands—most notably, the familiar ring-shaped atolls—as well as the low-elevation areas of high islands in the Pacific Ocean, is critical for decision-makers in protecting infrastructure or relocating resources and people.