User engagement to improve coastal data access and delivery

A priority of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program focus on coastal change hazards is to provide accessible and actionable science that meets user needs. To understand these needs, 10 virtual Coastal Data Delivery Listening Sessions were completed with 5 coastal data user types that coastal change hazards data are intended to serve: resource managers, consultants, local planners, State planners, and non-USGS researchers. 

During these listening sessions, participants revealed challenges to coastal data use including being overwhelmed by too many webtools, having a lack of capacity to search for and understand new information, facing difficulties finding data, and not understanding how to apply data.  

The specific coastal data and information needs described by participants are also detailed in the report and describe data gaps, a need for simpler tools, data needs that differ across spatial and temporal scales, and more outreach on coastal topics and climate change. Participants also suggested leveraging data across study sites and regions to help improve capacity issues and called for more communication and collaboration among and within Federal agencies.  

The synthesized information from the Coastal Data Delivery Listening Sessions provided in this report can help the USGS and those working on coastal challenges better understand barriers to coastal information use and the exact data requirements of different coastal data users.