Climate change poses significant risks to coasts, from sea level rise and high-tide flooding to accelerated erosion and intensifying storms. USGS scientists help coastal communities better understand climate change impacts, inform emergency responses, and provide insights to improve resilience and preserve coastal resources in the future.
How does Climate Change Affect U.S. Coasts?
Millions of Americans live and play along the coast. Coastal counties are home to 127 million people (and growing!), accounting for $8.6 trillion in goods and services each year. Coastal communities are well acquainted with the realities of living by the ocean – the storms, the waves, the salt, the sand. Yet climate change is altering the Nation’s coastal landscapes, creating new challenges for these communities that they are seldom equipped to face.
USGS Helps Communities Understand New Coastal Hazards
By helping people understand and respond to coastal change, the USGS helps communities become resilient to coastal hazards now and in the future.
USGS researchers use on-the-ground field work, high-resolution data, and modeling to help communities understand and respond to changes in coastal landscapes. Federal, Tribal, state, and local offices around the country use USGS data to inform coastal management and strategic planning. Some use our science to plan evacuation notices, inform city planning, and construct storm-resistant infrastructure. Others use USGS habitat assessments and decision support tools to restore coastal ecosystems, developing “green infrastructure” that can buffer against future storm damage and coastal erosion.
Our science helps to:
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Forecast future storms, floods, and coastal erosion, and predict the resulting impacts on coasts
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Build a better understanding of coastal ecosystems
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Understand climate change impacts to coastal ecosystems and communities
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Develop decision support tools to help coastal communities prepare for and recover from storms, floods, and erosion
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Restore and protect coastal ecosystems that absorb greenhouse gasses, reducing the effects of climate change (blue carbon)
Explore some of the many USGS science projects on coastal change, storms, and sea level rise.
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)
Coastal Climate Impacts
Dynamic coastlines along the western U.S.
The Impact of Sea-Level Rise and Climate Change on Pacific Ocean Atolls
Climate impacts to Arctic coasts
State of Our Nation's Coast
CASC Extreme Weather Highlights
Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS)
Coastal Resource Evaluation for Management Application (CREMA)
COAWST: A Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport Modeling System
Coastal Change Hazards - Technical Capabilities and Applications
Coastal Change Hazards - Stakeholder Engagement and Communications
Coasts, Storms, and Sea Level Rise Geonarratives
Explore our Nation's coasts and the risks they face from sea level rise, high-tide flooding, accelerated erosion and intensifying storms. Learn how USGS science is used to forecast coastal change forecasts in real-time, and how we can apply our knowledge to improving coastal resilience into the future.
- Overview
How does Climate Change Affect U.S. Coasts?
Millions of Americans live and play along the coast. Coastal counties are home to 127 million people (and growing!), accounting for $8.6 trillion in goods and services each year. Coastal communities are well acquainted with the realities of living by the ocean – the storms, the waves, the salt, the sand. Yet climate change is altering the Nation’s coastal landscapes, creating new challenges for these communities that they are seldom equipped to face.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.Rising global temperatures create warmer oceans and, in turn, warmer and wetter ocean breezes. These factors feed tropical storms and create longer, more destructive hurricane seasons. The 2010s saw twice as many tropical cyclones as the 1980s and nearly ten times as much related property damage ($476 billion compared to $41 billion). Warming trends also mean that hurricanes are moving farther north, leaving new communities at risk of devastating storms. Learn more about USGS work with extreme storms.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.Warmer temperatures mean less ice. As ice melts, it releases huge amounts of water previously stored in sea ice and glaciers into the world’s oceans. Warmer water is also “bigger” -- water increases in volume as temperatures rise. Combined, these factors cause global sea levels to rise. Rising water levels worsen seasonal tidal flooding, creating high-tide and sunny day flooding. They also leave roads, houses, marinas, and even whole islands underwater. Even small amounts of sea level rise can damage sensitive coastal and marine ecosystems by flooding wetland and seagrass ecosystems and damaging mangroves. Learn more about USGS work on sea level rise.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.Intense storms and higher seas create more winds, waves, and floods, leading to increased coastal erosion. Hurricanes can wash away sandy barrier islands, leaving coastlines and islands unprotected from storm surge. Waves and winds can carry away beach sand little by little, shrinking scenic beaches. Erosion also exposes human infrastructure and sensitive archeological sites to tides and storms. Many beaches along the Nation’s coastline have lost more than six feet of shoreline a year over the last century. Coastal erosion estimates for much of the country are expected to increase in coming decades. Learn more about USGS work on coastal erosion. USGS Helps Communities Understand New Coastal Hazards
By helping people understand and respond to coastal change, the USGS helps communities become resilient to coastal hazards now and in the future.
The USGS works to identify and address the Nation’s coastal change hazards problems. View the audio-described version. USGS researchers use on-the-ground field work, high-resolution data, and modeling to help communities understand and respond to changes in coastal landscapes. Federal, Tribal, state, and local offices around the country use USGS data to inform coastal management and strategic planning. Some use our science to plan evacuation notices, inform city planning, and construct storm-resistant infrastructure. Others use USGS habitat assessments and decision support tools to restore coastal ecosystems, developing “green infrastructure” that can buffer against future storm damage and coastal erosion.
Our science helps to:
-
Forecast future storms, floods, and coastal erosion, and predict the resulting impacts on coasts
-
Build a better understanding of coastal ecosystems
-
Understand climate change impacts to coastal ecosystems and communities
-
Develop decision support tools to help coastal communities prepare for and recover from storms, floods, and erosion
-
Restore and protect coastal ecosystems that absorb greenhouse gasses, reducing the effects of climate change (blue carbon)
-
- Publications
- Science
Explore some of the many USGS science projects on coastal change, storms, and sea level rise.
Filter Total Items: 37Digital 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...Coastal Climate Impacts
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...Dynamic coastlines along the western U.S.
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.The Impact of Sea-Level Rise and Climate Change on Pacific Ocean Atolls
Providing basic understanding and specific information on storm-wave inundation of atoll islands that house Department of Defense installations, and assessing the resulting impact of sea-level rise and storm-wave inundation on infrastructure and freshwater availability under a variety of sea-level rise and climatic scenarios.Climate impacts to Arctic coasts
The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the nation. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.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.CASC Extreme Weather Highlights
Climate change can intensify extreme weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards, and floods, devastating human and ecological communities and fundamentally shifting ecosystem and water dynamics in the region. The CASC network produces knowledge, data, and tools to understand and predict extreme weather events and help develop strategies for protecting communities and ecosystems.Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS)
The Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) makes detailed predictions of storm-induced coastal flooding, erosion, and cliff failures over large geographic scales. CoSMoS was developed for hindcast studies, operational applications and future climate scenarios to provide emergency responders and coastal planners with critical storm-hazards information that can be used to increase public safety...Coastal Resource Evaluation for Management Application (CREMA)
Coastal environments are dynamic systems that provide high ecological, economical, recreational, and cultural value. Managing coastal systems requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between geological and ecological processes, as well as the ability to predict both the near-term and long-term impacts of storms and sea-level rise. The Coastal Resource Evaluation for...COAWST: A Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport Modeling System
Understanding the processes responsible for coastal change is important for managing both our natural and economic coastal resources. Storms are one of the primary driving forces causing coastal change from a coupling of wave- and wind-driven flows. To better understand storm impacts and their effects on our coastlines, there is an international need to better predict storm paths and intensities...Coastal Change Hazards - Technical Capabilities and Applications
The Technical Capabilities and Applications (TCA) component of the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) program focus leverages technical talent across the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP) to bridge capability, expertise, and cooperation between the three Coastal and Marine Science Centers: Woods Hole, Massachusetts; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Santa Cruz, California. TCA provides...Coastal Change Hazards - Stakeholder Engagement and Communications
An important role of the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) program focus is to foster communication and information exchange, promote collaboration, build partnerships, and connect people with CCH knowledge, data, and tools. Coastal communities and practitioners need scientific information to support decisions regarding development, economics, environmental health, and public safety along the coast... - Data and More
- Multimedia
- News
Coasts, Storms, and Sea Level Rise Geonarratives
Explore our Nation's coasts and the risks they face from sea level rise, high-tide flooding, accelerated erosion and intensifying storms. Learn how USGS science is used to forecast coastal change forecasts in real-time, and how we can apply our knowledge to improving coastal resilience into the future.
- Connect