Emily Himmelstoss is the Acting Associate Program Coordinator for Science, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program within the Natural Hazards Mission Area. Her work has focused on historical shoreline change analysis as a proxy for assessing the impact of geologic processes and human activities on the form and history of coastal beaches.
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)
Computer Software for Calculating Shoreline Change (or positional change of a boundary over time)
Coastal Change Hazards Portal
An accessible mapping interface to visualize and access the portfolio of Coastal Change Hazards assessments of extreme storm, coastal erosion, and sea-level change impact data.
Career History
For more than fifteen years Emily Himmelstoss has led the development of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software, which is used globally in support of critical coastal decision-making. Recently, she has worked with a team of research scientists, data experts, and science communicators to develop a framework for the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) programmatic focus to better integrate basic and applied coastal science research and science-based data products across the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. The CCH framework facilitates the exchange of new ideas and approaches, collaborative project development, and the prioritization of coastal research and products as informed by Programmatic requirements and National needs.
She leads a project providing applied technical expertise, methods and data visualization to sustain regional to national-scale CCH assessment products, supports the advancement of CCH data sharing efforts, and has coordinated a cross-center technical cooperative to serve as a resource for projects across CMHRP.
She is a member of the steering committee on a project implementing an iterative user engagement strategy designed to inform how CMHRP science products are communicated through a codesign process with stakeholders. The intent of this effort is to make discovery and communication of CCH scientific data more effective, efficient, and meaningful for coastal hazards planning and preparedness.
Emily’s previous work included participation in a national-scale project assessing Coastal Change Hazards, specifically working to compile a comprehensive database of historical shoreline positions that were used along with the DSAS software to compute shoreline change rates for the open coastal waters of the United States. These data and the new understanding of coastal change patterns it described have been widely used to further scientific research and coastal management objectives. Since 2012 she has been part of a team developing the USGS Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) portal, a web visualization platform. This website provides an accessible mapping interface for federal and state agencies, NGOs, municipalities, and private citizens to visualize and access the portfolio of CCH assessments of extreme storm, coastal erosion, and sea-level change impact data.
Science and Products
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)
State of Our Nation's Coast
Massachusetts Integrated Coastal Studies (MICS)
Long-Term Coastal Change
Empowering decision-makers: A dynamic web interface for running Bayesian networks
Science and Products
- Publications
- Science
Digital 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...State of Our Nation's Coast
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...Massachusetts Integrated Coastal Studies (MICS)
Coastal erosion, intense storm events and sea-level rise pose threats to coastal communities and infrastructure. Managers and scientists often lack the high-resolution data needed to improve estimates of sediment abundance and movement, shoreline change, and seabed characteristics that influence coastal vulnerability. To address these and other needs the U.S. Geological Survey, in partnership with...Long-Term Coastal Change
Goals of this task include developing and improving coastal-change assessments and supporting long-term planning and decision making to ensure sustainable coastal economies, infrastructure, and ecosystems.Empowering decision-makers: A dynamic web interface for running Bayesian networks
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are at the forefront of research that is critical for decision-making, particularly through the development of models (Bayesian networks, or BNs) that forecast coastal change. The utility of these tools outside the scientific community has been limited because they rely on expensive, technical software and a moderate understanding of statistical analyses. W - Data
- Web Tools
- Software