State of Our Nation's Coast
Now Available: USGS Coastal Science Navigator
Our Science Stories
Coastal Change Hazards
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program
Coastal Change Hazards Video
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.
Our Science Stories
USGS Coastal Change Hazards research provides scientific tools to protect lives, property, and the economic well-being of the Nation.
Coastal Change Hazards
CCH facilitates the integration of diverse coastal science and the exchange of new ideas and approaches across the Coastal-Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP). Innovative collaboration is encouraged in order to identify and address the Nation’s needs and coastal change hazards problems.
Coastal Stakeholder Listening Sessions
By engaging with stakeholders and learning more about their specific needs, the State of Our Nation’s Coast project can more effectively design and refine robust, relevant, and timely Coastal Change Hazards products to ensure meaningful and actionable scientific information reaches our coastal communities and federal and state partners.
The USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP) established a Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) programmatic focus to support the optimization of resources, improve the visibility of USGS coastal hazards science, and prioritize science, products, and tools that meet stakeholder needs. Important work by CMHRP scientists and staff within CCH supports hazard mitigation along our nation’s coasts, so it is critical that science products are easy to find, navigate, understand, and apply. CCH centers user needs to transform how data is delivered and displayed. User needs are deeply considered for each type of information so our scientific products can be more effectively informed and guided. A key step is to determine which needs are already met, which aren’t yet, and how we can provide more accessible data and information to meet them.
Human-centered design is a practice-based approach to solving complex, ill-defined problems. Originally developed in the fields of engineering, software development, and commercial product design, human-centered design has more recently been applied to social challenges, healthcare, education, and other diverse fields. The State of Our Nation’s Coast project uses human-centered design as a framework to build information products and test innovation processes to support internal coordination and guide external engagement. As we work internally to coordinate within CCH and externally with stakeholders to better understand user needs and how to design responsively to meet them, a human-centered design approach provides mechanisms to manage complexity and ambiguity, as well as to support innovation both as a mindset and as a process. By moving iteratively and consciously through the human-centered design innovation cycle—defining our audience, determining their needs, brainstorming solutions, developing prototypes, and testing them with our stakeholders—the project will increase CCH capacity to effectively deliver actionable science.
The State of Our Nation’s Coast project utilizes an iterative tool development process founded on assessment of user needs that ensures what we produce addresses current informational barriers and provides discoverable data and tools that are easily understood by our users. With a transdisciplinary team of physical scientists, social scientists, and communications specialists, the State of Our Nation’s Coast project will design and test pioneering products to comprehensively ensure meaningful and actionable scientific information reaches our coastal communities and federal and state partners.
Coastal Science Navigator
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. It 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.
Explore the Coastal Science Navigator now.
Missed the public launch webinar? View the recording.
Our Science Stories
View our series of Coastal Change Hazards geonarratives, or visual narratives, to learn more about coastal change and our related research conducted along the Nation’s coasts!
The overarching geonarrative, “Our Coasts,” introduces the Nation’s coastal environments and why it is crucial to understand the impacts and risks associated with coastal change. From there, other topics can be explored in more detail, such as barrier islands, coastal storms, shoreline change, forecasting coastal change, and the role of coral reefs in the coastal environment. Each geonarrative allows the user to explore coastal hazards and the tools we develop and use to understand how they shape the environment and help decision makers reduce risks along the Nation’s coasts.
- Our Coasts
- Barrier Islands
- Future Coastal Flooding
- National Shoreline Change
- Real-time Forecasts of Coastal Change
- The Role of U.S. Coral Reefs in Coastal Protection
Coastal Stakeholder Listening Sessions
The State of Our Nation’s Coast project hosted coastal stakeholder listening sessions in Oakland, California and Falmouth, Massachusetts in January 2020 and February 2020 respectively, to receive feedback from invited stakeholders on the coastal change hazards’ geonarratives and learn more about stakeholder needs, what tools they currently use and why, and any limitations of their current tools. Feedback was also received from stakeholders at the 2020 Alaska Marine Science Symposium and Social Coast Forum 2020. All feedback was synthesized and has been used to help determine the target audience and vision of the next State of Our Nation’s Coast developed product.
In early 2021, ten workshops were conducted by SNC social scientists that queried the primary target audience of State of Our Nation’s Coast to more deeply understand their day-to-day needs, the types of data they use, and the barriers they face in their coastal hazards work. A webinar was held on October 22nd, where the workshop participants and their colleagues were invited both to learn about the findings from the workshops and to provide feedback on our initial plans for State of Our Nation’s Coast. More coastal stakeholder listening sessions are currently being planned as we move forward in our co-design process. If you have any questions, please contact Amanda Stoltz at astoltz@contractor.usgs.gov.
Coastal Change Hazards
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.
Our Science Stories
USGS Coastal Change Hazards research provides scientific tools to protect lives, property, and the economic well-being of the Nation.
Coastal Change Hazards
CCH facilitates the integration of diverse coastal science and the exchange of new ideas and approaches across the Coastal-Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP). Innovative collaboration is encouraged in order to identify and address the Nation’s needs and coastal change hazards problems.
Coastal Stakeholder Listening Sessions
By engaging with stakeholders and learning more about their specific needs, the State of Our Nation’s Coast project can more effectively design and refine robust, relevant, and timely Coastal Change Hazards products to ensure meaningful and actionable scientific information reaches our coastal communities and federal and state partners.
The USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP) established a Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) programmatic focus to support the optimization of resources, improve the visibility of USGS coastal hazards science, and prioritize science, products, and tools that meet stakeholder needs. Important work by CMHRP scientists and staff within CCH supports hazard mitigation along our nation’s coasts, so it is critical that science products are easy to find, navigate, understand, and apply. CCH centers user needs to transform how data is delivered and displayed. User needs are deeply considered for each type of information so our scientific products can be more effectively informed and guided. A key step is to determine which needs are already met, which aren’t yet, and how we can provide more accessible data and information to meet them.
Human-centered design is a practice-based approach to solving complex, ill-defined problems. Originally developed in the fields of engineering, software development, and commercial product design, human-centered design has more recently been applied to social challenges, healthcare, education, and other diverse fields. The State of Our Nation’s Coast project uses human-centered design as a framework to build information products and test innovation processes to support internal coordination and guide external engagement. As we work internally to coordinate within CCH and externally with stakeholders to better understand user needs and how to design responsively to meet them, a human-centered design approach provides mechanisms to manage complexity and ambiguity, as well as to support innovation both as a mindset and as a process. By moving iteratively and consciously through the human-centered design innovation cycle—defining our audience, determining their needs, brainstorming solutions, developing prototypes, and testing them with our stakeholders—the project will increase CCH capacity to effectively deliver actionable science.
The State of Our Nation’s Coast project utilizes an iterative tool development process founded on assessment of user needs that ensures what we produce addresses current informational barriers and provides discoverable data and tools that are easily understood by our users. With a transdisciplinary team of physical scientists, social scientists, and communications specialists, the State of Our Nation’s Coast project will design and test pioneering products to comprehensively ensure meaningful and actionable scientific information reaches our coastal communities and federal and state partners.
Coastal Science Navigator
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. It 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.
Explore the Coastal Science Navigator now.
Missed the public launch webinar? View the recording.
Our Science Stories
View our series of Coastal Change Hazards geonarratives, or visual narratives, to learn more about coastal change and our related research conducted along the Nation’s coasts!
The overarching geonarrative, “Our Coasts,” introduces the Nation’s coastal environments and why it is crucial to understand the impacts and risks associated with coastal change. From there, other topics can be explored in more detail, such as barrier islands, coastal storms, shoreline change, forecasting coastal change, and the role of coral reefs in the coastal environment. Each geonarrative allows the user to explore coastal hazards and the tools we develop and use to understand how they shape the environment and help decision makers reduce risks along the Nation’s coasts.
- Our Coasts
- Barrier Islands
- Future Coastal Flooding
- National Shoreline Change
- Real-time Forecasts of Coastal Change
- The Role of U.S. Coral Reefs in Coastal Protection
Coastal Stakeholder Listening Sessions
The State of Our Nation’s Coast project hosted coastal stakeholder listening sessions in Oakland, California and Falmouth, Massachusetts in January 2020 and February 2020 respectively, to receive feedback from invited stakeholders on the coastal change hazards’ geonarratives and learn more about stakeholder needs, what tools they currently use and why, and any limitations of their current tools. Feedback was also received from stakeholders at the 2020 Alaska Marine Science Symposium and Social Coast Forum 2020. All feedback was synthesized and has been used to help determine the target audience and vision of the next State of Our Nation’s Coast developed product.
In early 2021, ten workshops were conducted by SNC social scientists that queried the primary target audience of State of Our Nation’s Coast to more deeply understand their day-to-day needs, the types of data they use, and the barriers they face in their coastal hazards work. A webinar was held on October 22nd, where the workshop participants and their colleagues were invited both to learn about the findings from the workshops and to provide feedback on our initial plans for State of Our Nation’s Coast. More coastal stakeholder listening sessions are currently being planned as we move forward in our co-design process. If you have any questions, please contact Amanda Stoltz at astoltz@contractor.usgs.gov.