Images

Researchers survey Elwha River elevation and depths. Clockwise from upper left: setting up a traditional survey instrument above the river; measuring river depths from a kayak with sonar and GPS; walking the beach with GPS backpacks; and determining offshore depths using a personal watercraft with GPS and sonar.

The USGS strives to put coastal change data and information at the fingertips of users such as planners and emergency managers. The explicit goal is to enable users to integrate and apply USGS data and tools to address their specific needs. Online resources such as the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) portal are designed with applied use of data in mind.

Photographs showing equipment used during bathymetric and topographic surveys along the Columbia River littoral cell, Washington and Oregon.

Sand ridge morphology and bedform migration patterns offshore of Assateague Island

At Fire Island, estuarine, wetland, coastal, and oceanic processes interact, affecting natural and human communities. The CMHRP has been conducting scientific investigations at Fire Island in order to protect coastal infrastructure.

Schematic showing how sediment on the seafloor moves in response to a force created by the combined action of tides, ocean waves, and wind-driven currents.

Neil Ganju (standing) and Patrick Dickhudt preparing an oceanographic platform to measure wetland sediment transport in Forsythe NWR, New Jersey

Parameters considered in models for shoreline change, barrier island characteristics, and piping plover habitat availability. Together, these three models allow for forecasts of most likely future barrier island characteristics and piping plover habitat availability given sea-level rise. 

Sandy Brosnahan performing first solo flight as a USGS certified drone pilot.  There are multiple exciting applications for drone imagery including erosion studies and physical changes to coastal ecosystems over time. 

USGS scientist Sara Zeigler records habitat characteristics in iPlover at an ‘exclosed’ nest. On some beaches, managers erect netting around nests to protect eggs/chicks and adults from predators, allowing movement of chicks and parents to and from the nest but excluding predators

Piping Plover chicks

Browse graphic of Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge study area

Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey Study SIte

Products of Structure-from-Motion applied to data collected by UAS in Black Beach, Falmouth, MA

Groundwater data were collected in the spring and fall of 2008 from three sites representing different geological settings and biogeochemical conditions within the surficial glacial aquifer of Long Island, NY.

Browse graphic of point cloud data from low altitude aerial imagery from unmanned aerial system flights over Coast Guard Beach, Eastham, MA

Wave runup at Madeira Beach, Florida, during Tropical Storm Colin

USGS ocean engineer Gerry Hatcher with the camera system he helped create for recording the precise time and geographic location of each air photo it takes. The system is mounted in the cargo compartment of a Cessna 182R airplane and takes photos through a window cut into a removable cargo door (right).

USGS research oceanographers Jenna Brown and Joe Long installed this video camera atop the Shoreline Island Resort hotel in Madeira Beach, Florida. Starting in February 2017, the camera has recorded video for 17 minutes every hour during daylight hours.

A high resolution digital video camera is installed atop a waterfront hotel at Madeira Beach, Florida, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Lush thicket of staghorn coral in the Dry Tortugas National Park