Sean Vitousek
Research Oceanographer, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Science and Products
DUNEX Modeling Waves, Water Levels, Sediment Transport, and Shoreline Change
Large, collaborative field experiments such as DUNEX leverage observations of the coastal ocean made by multiple academic, agency, and NGO teams, providing the opportunity to grasp a broader picture of the forces responsible for coastal change. Despite deployment of many instruments, it’s impossible to measure everything, everywhere, at all times. Numerical models that represent the physical...
CoSMoS-COAST
CoSMoS-COAST is a USGS-developed, large-scale coastal change prediction model. It seeks to model coastal change due to a variety of oceanographic and terrestrial processes across a multitude of spatiotemporal scales (e.g., local to national-scale).
Modeled nearshore wave parameters along the Columbia River littoral cell, Washington and Oregon, 2010-2023
Model hindcasts were performed with a spectral wave model to quantify nearshore wave parameters along the Columbia River littoral cell, Oregon and Washington. The spectral wave model SWAN was used to simulate nearshore wave dynamics at 1-hr intervals along the coast between 2014 and 2023. A second hindcast simulated wave dynamics between 2010 and 2011. This data release describes the development a
Satellite-derived shorelines for the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida for the period 1984-2022, obtained using CoastSat
This dataset contains shoreline positions derived from available Landsat satellite imagery for four states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida) along the U.S. Gulf coast for the time period 1984 to 2022. An open-source toolbox, CoastSat (Vos and others, 2019a and 2019b), was used to classify coastal Landsat imagery and detect shorelines at the sub-pixel scale. Resulting shorelines are pres
Projections of shoreline change for California due to 21st century sea-level rise
This dataset contains projections of shoreline change and uncertainty bands across California for future scenarios of sea-level rise (SLR). Projections were made using the Coastal Storm Modeling System - Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool (CoSMoS-COAST), a numerical model run in an ensemble forced with global-to-local nested wave models and assimilated with satellite-derived shoreline (S
Future coastal hazards along the U.S. Atlantic coast
This product consists of several datasets that map future coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea level rise (SLR) and storms for three States (Florida, Georgia, and Virginia) along the Atlantic coast of the United States. The SLR scenarios encompass a plausible range of projections by 2100 based on the best available science and with enough resolution to support a suite of different plann
Future coastal hazards along the U.S. North and South Carolina coasts
This product consists of several datasets that map future coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea level rise (SLR) and storms along the North and South Carolina coast. The SLR scenarios encompass a plausible range of projections by 2100 based on the best available, science and with enough resolution to support a suite of different planning horizons. The storm scenarios are derived with the
Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) for Northern California 3.2 (ver. 1e, October 2024)
This dataset includes coastal flood and associated hazard projections for Humboldt County from Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS).
CoSMoS makes detailed predictions (meter-scale) over large geographic scales (100s of kilometers) of storm-induced coastal flooding and erosion for both current and future sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios. CoSMoS 3.2 for Northern California shows projections for futu
Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) for Southern California, v3.0, Phase 2
The Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) makes detailed predictions (meter-scale) over large geographic scales (100s of kilometers) of storm-induced coastal flooding and erosion for both current and future sea-level-rise scenarios, as well as long-term shoreline change and cliff retreat. Resulting projections for future climate scenarios (sea-level rise and storms) provide emergency responders a
Filter Total Items: 27
Projections of multiple climate-related coastal hazards for the US Southeast Atlantic
Faced with accelerating sea level rise and changing ocean storm conditions, coastal communities require comprehensive assessments of climate-driven hazard impacts to inform adaptation measures. Previous studies have focused on flooding but rarely on other climate-related coastal hazards, such as subsidence, beach erosion and groundwater. Here, we project societal exposure to multiple hazards along
Authors
Patrick L. Barnard, Kevin M. Befus, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Anita C Engelstad, Li H. Erikson, Amy C. Foxgrover, Maya Kumari Hayden, Daniel J. Hoover, Tim Leijnse, Chris Massey, Robert T. McCall, Norberto Nadal-Caraballo, Kees Nederhoff, Andrea C. O'Neill, Kai Alexander Parker, Manoochehr Shirzaei, Leonard O. Ohenhen, Peter W Swarzenski, Jennifer Anne Thomas, Maarten van Ormondt, Sean Vitousek, Killian Vos, Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Jamie Jones
The projected exposure and response of a natural barrier island system to climate-driven coastal hazards
Accelerating sea level rise (SLR) and changing storm patterns will increasingly expose barrier islands to coastal hazards, including flooding, erosion, and rising groundwater tables. We assess the exposure of Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island system in North Carolina (USA), to projected SLR and storm hazards over the twenty-first century. We estimate that with 0.5 m of SLR, 47% of c
Authors
Jennifer Anne Thomas, Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek, Li H. Erikson, Kai Alexander Parker, Kees Nederhoff, Kevin M. Befus, Manoochehr Shirzaei
Climate controls on longshore sediment transport and coastal morphology adjacent to engineered inlets
Coastal jetties are commonly used throughout the world to stabilize channels and improve navigation through inlets. These engineered structures form artificial boundaries to littoral cells by reducing wave-driven longshore sediment transport across inlet entrances. Consequently, beaches adjacent to engineered inlets are subject to large gradients in longshore transport rates and are highly sensiti
Authors
Andrew W. Stevens, Peter R Ruggiero, Kai Alexander Parker, Sean Vitousek, Guy Gelfenbaum, George M Kaminsky
Monitoring interdecadal coastal change along dissipative beaches via satellite imagery at regional scale
Coastal morphological changes can be assessed using shoreline position observations from space. However, satellite-derived waterline (SDW) and shoreline (SDS; SDW corrected for hydrodynamic contributions and outliers) detection methods are subject to several sources of uncertainty and inaccuracy. We extracted high-spatiotemporal-resolution (~50 m-monthly) time series of mean high water shoreline p
Authors
Marcan Graffin, Mohsen Taherkhani, Meredith Leung, Sean Vitousek, George Kaminsky, Peter Ruggiero
Benchmarking satellite-derived shoreline mapping algorithms
Satellite remote sensing is becoming a widely used monitoring technique in coastal sciences. Yet, no benchmarking studies exist that compare the performance of popular satellite-derived shoreline mapping algorithms against standardized sets of inputs and validation data. Here we present a new benchmarking framework to evaluate the accuracy of shoreline change observations extracted from publicly a
Authors
Kilian Vos, Kristen D. Splinter, Jesus Palomar-Vázquez, Josep E. Pardo-Pascual, Jaime Almonacid-Caballer, Carlos Cabezas-Rabadán, Etienne Kras, Arjen Luijendijk, Floris Kalkoen, Luis P. Almeida, Daniel Pais, Antonio Henrique da Fontoura Klein, Yongjing Mao, Daniel Harris, Bruno Castelle, Daniel Buscombe, Sean Vitousek
Advances in morphodynamic modeling of coastal barriers: A review
As scientific understanding of barrier morphodynamics has improved, so has the ability to reproduce observed phenomena and predict future barrier states using mathematical models. To use existing models effectively and improve them, it is important to understand the current state of morphodynamic modeling and the progress that has been made in the field. This manuscript offers a review of the lite
Authors
Steven Hoagland, Catherine Jeffries, Jennifer Irish, Robert Weiss, Kyle Mandli, Sean Vitousek, Catherine Johnson, Mary Cialone
A model integrating satellite-derived shoreline observations for predicting fine-scale shoreline response to waves and sea-level rise across large coastal regions
Satellite-derived shoreline observations combined with dynamic shoreline models enable fine-scale predictions of coastal change across large spatiotemporal scales. Here, we present a satellite-data-assimilated, “littoral-cell”-based, ensemble Kalman-filter shoreline model to predict coastal change and uncertainty due to waves, sea-level rise (SLR), and other natural and anthropogenic processes. We
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Kilian Vos, Kristen D. Splinter, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard
Flushing time variability in a short, low-inflow estuary
Flushing time, the time scale for exchange and mixing between embayed and oceanic waters in an estuary, plays an integral role in determining water quality and aquatic ecosystem health. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal variability of flushing times throughout Morro Bay, a short, low-inflow estuary (LIE) on the California coast, using a calibrated and validated hydrodynamic model (Delft3D).
Authors
Mohsen Taherkhani, Sean Vitousek, Ryan K. Walter, Jennifer O’Leary, Amid P. Khodadoust
Multiscale assessment of shoreline evolution in the US Pacific Northwest via a process-based model
Prediction of shoreline evolution in coastal environments is critical to aid adaptation strategy planning for coastal communities. To perform reliable predictions, process-based shoreline change models have recently gained popularity in many applications. The study region here, Tillamook County, Oregon, on the US Pacific Northwest coast, has recently been experiencing elevated shoreline erosion ra
Authors
Mohsen Taherkhani, Meredith Leung, Peter Ruggiero, Sean Vitousek, Jonathan Allan
Earth science looks to outer space
Satellite data are revolutionizing coastal science. A study revealing how the El Niño/Southern Oscillation impacts coastal erosion around the Pacific Rim shows what is possible.
Authors
Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek
Understanding uncertainties in contemporary and future extreme wave events for broad-scale impact and adaptation planning
Understanding uncertainties in extreme wind-wave events is essential for offshore/coastal risk and adaptation estimates. Despite this, uncertainties in contemporary extreme wave events have not been assessed, and projections are still limited. Here, we quantify, at global scale, the uncertainties in contemporary extreme wave estimates across an ensemble of widely used global wave reanalyses/hindca
Authors
Joao Morim, Thomas Wahl, Sean Vitousek, Sara Santamaria, Ian Young, Mark Hemer
The future of coastal monitoring through satellite remote sensing
Satellite remote sensing is transforming coastal science from a “data-poor” field into a “data-rich” field. Sandy beaches are dynamic landscapes that change in response to long-term pressures, short-term pulses, and anthropogenic interventions. Until recently, the rate and breadth of beach change have outpaced our ability to monitor those changes, due to the spatiotemporal limitations of our obser
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Dan Buscombe, Kilian Vos, Patrick L. Barnard, Andrew C. Ritchie, Jonathan Warrick
CoSMoS-COAST: The Coastal, One-line, Assimilated, Simulation Tool of the Coastal Storm Modeling System
A software release of CoSMoS-COAST: The Coastal, One-line, Assimilated, Simulation Tool of the Coastal Storm Modeling System. The software (coded in Matlab) encapsulates a long-term shoreline change model that combines longshore and cross-shore transport and assimilates historical shoreline observations.
Science and Products
DUNEX Modeling Waves, Water Levels, Sediment Transport, and Shoreline Change
Large, collaborative field experiments such as DUNEX leverage observations of the coastal ocean made by multiple academic, agency, and NGO teams, providing the opportunity to grasp a broader picture of the forces responsible for coastal change. Despite deployment of many instruments, it’s impossible to measure everything, everywhere, at all times. Numerical models that represent the physical...
CoSMoS-COAST
CoSMoS-COAST is a USGS-developed, large-scale coastal change prediction model. It seeks to model coastal change due to a variety of oceanographic and terrestrial processes across a multitude of spatiotemporal scales (e.g., local to national-scale).
Modeled nearshore wave parameters along the Columbia River littoral cell, Washington and Oregon, 2010-2023
Model hindcasts were performed with a spectral wave model to quantify nearshore wave parameters along the Columbia River littoral cell, Oregon and Washington. The spectral wave model SWAN was used to simulate nearshore wave dynamics at 1-hr intervals along the coast between 2014 and 2023. A second hindcast simulated wave dynamics between 2010 and 2011. This data release describes the development a
Satellite-derived shorelines for the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida for the period 1984-2022, obtained using CoastSat
This dataset contains shoreline positions derived from available Landsat satellite imagery for four states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida) along the U.S. Gulf coast for the time period 1984 to 2022. An open-source toolbox, CoastSat (Vos and others, 2019a and 2019b), was used to classify coastal Landsat imagery and detect shorelines at the sub-pixel scale. Resulting shorelines are pres
Projections of shoreline change for California due to 21st century sea-level rise
This dataset contains projections of shoreline change and uncertainty bands across California for future scenarios of sea-level rise (SLR). Projections were made using the Coastal Storm Modeling System - Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool (CoSMoS-COAST), a numerical model run in an ensemble forced with global-to-local nested wave models and assimilated with satellite-derived shoreline (S
Future coastal hazards along the U.S. Atlantic coast
This product consists of several datasets that map future coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea level rise (SLR) and storms for three States (Florida, Georgia, and Virginia) along the Atlantic coast of the United States. The SLR scenarios encompass a plausible range of projections by 2100 based on the best available science and with enough resolution to support a suite of different plann
Future coastal hazards along the U.S. North and South Carolina coasts
This product consists of several datasets that map future coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea level rise (SLR) and storms along the North and South Carolina coast. The SLR scenarios encompass a plausible range of projections by 2100 based on the best available, science and with enough resolution to support a suite of different planning horizons. The storm scenarios are derived with the
Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) for Northern California 3.2 (ver. 1e, October 2024)
This dataset includes coastal flood and associated hazard projections for Humboldt County from Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS).
CoSMoS makes detailed predictions (meter-scale) over large geographic scales (100s of kilometers) of storm-induced coastal flooding and erosion for both current and future sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios. CoSMoS 3.2 for Northern California shows projections for futu
Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) for Southern California, v3.0, Phase 2
The Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) makes detailed predictions (meter-scale) over large geographic scales (100s of kilometers) of storm-induced coastal flooding and erosion for both current and future sea-level-rise scenarios, as well as long-term shoreline change and cliff retreat. Resulting projections for future climate scenarios (sea-level rise and storms) provide emergency responders a
Filter Total Items: 27
Projections of multiple climate-related coastal hazards for the US Southeast Atlantic
Faced with accelerating sea level rise and changing ocean storm conditions, coastal communities require comprehensive assessments of climate-driven hazard impacts to inform adaptation measures. Previous studies have focused on flooding but rarely on other climate-related coastal hazards, such as subsidence, beach erosion and groundwater. Here, we project societal exposure to multiple hazards along
Authors
Patrick L. Barnard, Kevin M. Befus, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Anita C Engelstad, Li H. Erikson, Amy C. Foxgrover, Maya Kumari Hayden, Daniel J. Hoover, Tim Leijnse, Chris Massey, Robert T. McCall, Norberto Nadal-Caraballo, Kees Nederhoff, Andrea C. O'Neill, Kai Alexander Parker, Manoochehr Shirzaei, Leonard O. Ohenhen, Peter W Swarzenski, Jennifer Anne Thomas, Maarten van Ormondt, Sean Vitousek, Killian Vos, Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Jamie Jones
The projected exposure and response of a natural barrier island system to climate-driven coastal hazards
Accelerating sea level rise (SLR) and changing storm patterns will increasingly expose barrier islands to coastal hazards, including flooding, erosion, and rising groundwater tables. We assess the exposure of Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island system in North Carolina (USA), to projected SLR and storm hazards over the twenty-first century. We estimate that with 0.5 m of SLR, 47% of c
Authors
Jennifer Anne Thomas, Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek, Li H. Erikson, Kai Alexander Parker, Kees Nederhoff, Kevin M. Befus, Manoochehr Shirzaei
Climate controls on longshore sediment transport and coastal morphology adjacent to engineered inlets
Coastal jetties are commonly used throughout the world to stabilize channels and improve navigation through inlets. These engineered structures form artificial boundaries to littoral cells by reducing wave-driven longshore sediment transport across inlet entrances. Consequently, beaches adjacent to engineered inlets are subject to large gradients in longshore transport rates and are highly sensiti
Authors
Andrew W. Stevens, Peter R Ruggiero, Kai Alexander Parker, Sean Vitousek, Guy Gelfenbaum, George M Kaminsky
Monitoring interdecadal coastal change along dissipative beaches via satellite imagery at regional scale
Coastal morphological changes can be assessed using shoreline position observations from space. However, satellite-derived waterline (SDW) and shoreline (SDS; SDW corrected for hydrodynamic contributions and outliers) detection methods are subject to several sources of uncertainty and inaccuracy. We extracted high-spatiotemporal-resolution (~50 m-monthly) time series of mean high water shoreline p
Authors
Marcan Graffin, Mohsen Taherkhani, Meredith Leung, Sean Vitousek, George Kaminsky, Peter Ruggiero
Benchmarking satellite-derived shoreline mapping algorithms
Satellite remote sensing is becoming a widely used monitoring technique in coastal sciences. Yet, no benchmarking studies exist that compare the performance of popular satellite-derived shoreline mapping algorithms against standardized sets of inputs and validation data. Here we present a new benchmarking framework to evaluate the accuracy of shoreline change observations extracted from publicly a
Authors
Kilian Vos, Kristen D. Splinter, Jesus Palomar-Vázquez, Josep E. Pardo-Pascual, Jaime Almonacid-Caballer, Carlos Cabezas-Rabadán, Etienne Kras, Arjen Luijendijk, Floris Kalkoen, Luis P. Almeida, Daniel Pais, Antonio Henrique da Fontoura Klein, Yongjing Mao, Daniel Harris, Bruno Castelle, Daniel Buscombe, Sean Vitousek
Advances in morphodynamic modeling of coastal barriers: A review
As scientific understanding of barrier morphodynamics has improved, so has the ability to reproduce observed phenomena and predict future barrier states using mathematical models. To use existing models effectively and improve them, it is important to understand the current state of morphodynamic modeling and the progress that has been made in the field. This manuscript offers a review of the lite
Authors
Steven Hoagland, Catherine Jeffries, Jennifer Irish, Robert Weiss, Kyle Mandli, Sean Vitousek, Catherine Johnson, Mary Cialone
A model integrating satellite-derived shoreline observations for predicting fine-scale shoreline response to waves and sea-level rise across large coastal regions
Satellite-derived shoreline observations combined with dynamic shoreline models enable fine-scale predictions of coastal change across large spatiotemporal scales. Here, we present a satellite-data-assimilated, “littoral-cell”-based, ensemble Kalman-filter shoreline model to predict coastal change and uncertainty due to waves, sea-level rise (SLR), and other natural and anthropogenic processes. We
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Kilian Vos, Kristen D. Splinter, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard
Flushing time variability in a short, low-inflow estuary
Flushing time, the time scale for exchange and mixing between embayed and oceanic waters in an estuary, plays an integral role in determining water quality and aquatic ecosystem health. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal variability of flushing times throughout Morro Bay, a short, low-inflow estuary (LIE) on the California coast, using a calibrated and validated hydrodynamic model (Delft3D).
Authors
Mohsen Taherkhani, Sean Vitousek, Ryan K. Walter, Jennifer O’Leary, Amid P. Khodadoust
Multiscale assessment of shoreline evolution in the US Pacific Northwest via a process-based model
Prediction of shoreline evolution in coastal environments is critical to aid adaptation strategy planning for coastal communities. To perform reliable predictions, process-based shoreline change models have recently gained popularity in many applications. The study region here, Tillamook County, Oregon, on the US Pacific Northwest coast, has recently been experiencing elevated shoreline erosion ra
Authors
Mohsen Taherkhani, Meredith Leung, Peter Ruggiero, Sean Vitousek, Jonathan Allan
Earth science looks to outer space
Satellite data are revolutionizing coastal science. A study revealing how the El Niño/Southern Oscillation impacts coastal erosion around the Pacific Rim shows what is possible.
Authors
Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek
Understanding uncertainties in contemporary and future extreme wave events for broad-scale impact and adaptation planning
Understanding uncertainties in extreme wind-wave events is essential for offshore/coastal risk and adaptation estimates. Despite this, uncertainties in contemporary extreme wave events have not been assessed, and projections are still limited. Here, we quantify, at global scale, the uncertainties in contemporary extreme wave estimates across an ensemble of widely used global wave reanalyses/hindca
Authors
Joao Morim, Thomas Wahl, Sean Vitousek, Sara Santamaria, Ian Young, Mark Hemer
The future of coastal monitoring through satellite remote sensing
Satellite remote sensing is transforming coastal science from a “data-poor” field into a “data-rich” field. Sandy beaches are dynamic landscapes that change in response to long-term pressures, short-term pulses, and anthropogenic interventions. Until recently, the rate and breadth of beach change have outpaced our ability to monitor those changes, due to the spatiotemporal limitations of our obser
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Dan Buscombe, Kilian Vos, Patrick L. Barnard, Andrew C. Ritchie, Jonathan Warrick
CoSMoS-COAST: The Coastal, One-line, Assimilated, Simulation Tool of the Coastal Storm Modeling System
A software release of CoSMoS-COAST: The Coastal, One-line, Assimilated, Simulation Tool of the Coastal Storm Modeling System. The software (coded in Matlab) encapsulates a long-term shoreline change model that combines longshore and cross-shore transport and assimilates historical shoreline observations.