Jonathan Warrick
My research focuses on the intersection of rivers and the sea. Topics include the movement of sediment within and from coastal watersheds, and how sediment can alter coastal landscapes and habitats. Recently these subjects have been addressed in my work on the Elwha River, Washington, where the largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed in 2014.
In The News
2017, Los Angeles Times article, “Highway 1 was buried under a massive landslide. Months later, engineers battle Mother Nature to fix it”
2016, The Department of Interior and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, International RiverPrize Finalist
2015, New York Times article, “When Dams Come Down, Salmon and Sand Can Prosper”
2014, National Geographic news article, “World’s Largest Dam Removal Unleashes U.S. River After Century of Electric Production”
2013, Book, “Elwha: A River Reborn”
2012, Front-page Seattle Times article, “Dam gone, nature rebuilds Elwha River beach”
2009, Science Daily article, “Sediment Yield From The Tectonically Active Semiarid Western Transverse Ranges Of California”
2006, Environmental Science & Technology news article, “California’s Shifting Sands”
Professional Experience
Research Geologist, GS-15, 2016-present, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, California
Research Geologist, GS-14, 2008-2016, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, California
Research Geologist, GS-13, 2004-2008, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, California
Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, GS-12, 2002-2004, USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Menlo Park, California
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., 2002, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.Sc., 1995, University Wisconsin-Madison
B.Sc., 1993, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Science and Products
Mapping Land-Use, Hazard Vulnerability and Habitat Suitability Using Deep Neural Networks
Exploring the USGS Science Data Life Cycle in the Cloud
National Dam Removal Database: A living database for information on dying dams
Dam removal: synthesis of ecological and physical responses
Big Sur Coastal Landslides
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-11-26
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-10-11
Point clouds, bathymetric maps, and orthoimagery generated from overlapping lakebed images acquired with the SQUID-5 system near Dollar Point, Lake Tahoe, CA, March 2021
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-09-08 to 2019-09-13, Post-Hurricane Dorian
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-08-30 and 2019-09-02, Pre-Hurricane Dorian
Overlapping lakebed images and associated GNSS locations acquired near Dollar Point, Lake Tahoe, CA, March 2021
Geophysical and core sample data collected offshore San Francisco, California, during field activity 2019-649-FA from 2019-10-11 to 2019-10-18
Aerial Photogrammetry Data and Products of the North Carolina coast: 2018-10-06 to 2018-10-08, post-Hurricane Florence
Geophysical and core sample data collected offshore Oceanside to San Diego, southern California, during field activity 2018-638-FA from 2018-05-21 to 2018-05-26
Geophysical and sampling data collected offshore Oceanside, southern California during field activity 2017-686-FA from 2017-10-23 to 2017-10-31
Post-Hurricane Florence Aerial Imagery: Cape Fear to Duck, North Carolina, October 6-8, 2018
Bathymetry and acoustic-backscatter data collected in 2016 offshore the Elwha River mouth, Washington, during USGS Field Activity 2016-605-FA
Fires, floods and other extreme events – How watershed processes under climate change will shape our coastlines
Crowd-sourced SfM: Best practices for high resolution monitoring of coastal cliffs and bluffs
Structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry is an increasingly common technique for measuring landscape change over time by deriving 3D point clouds and surface models from overlapping photographs. Traditional change detection approaches require photos that are geotagged with a differential GPS (DGPS) location, which requires expensive equipment that can limit the ability of communities and researc
Fire (plus) flood (equals) beach: Coastal response to an exceptional river sediment discharge event
Human-in-the-Loop segmentation of earth surface imagery
Labeling poststorm coastal imagery for machine learning: Measurement of interrater agreement
Processing coastal imagery with Agisoft Metashape Professional Edition, version 1.6—Structure from motion workflow documentation
IntroductionStructure from motion (SFM) has become an integral technique in coastal change assessment; the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) used Agisoft Metashape Professional Edition photogrammetry software to develop a workflow that processes coastline aerial imagery collected in response to storms since Hurricane Florence in 2018. This report details step-by-step instructions to create three-dimen
A survey of storm-induced seaward-transport features observed during the 2019 and 2020 hurricane seasons
Littoral sediment from rivers: Patterns, rates and processes of river mouth morphodynamics
Cliff Feature Delineation Tool and Baseline Builder version 1.0 user guide
Community for data integration 2018 funded project report
Accurate bathymetric maps from underwater digital imagery without ground control
Optical wave gauging using deep neural networks
Science and Products
Mapping Land-Use, Hazard Vulnerability and Habitat Suitability Using Deep Neural Networks
Exploring the USGS Science Data Life Cycle in the Cloud
National Dam Removal Database: A living database for information on dying dams
Dam removal: synthesis of ecological and physical responses
Big Sur Coastal Landslides
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-11-26
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-10-11
Point clouds, bathymetric maps, and orthoimagery generated from overlapping lakebed images acquired with the SQUID-5 system near Dollar Point, Lake Tahoe, CA, March 2021
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-09-08 to 2019-09-13, Post-Hurricane Dorian
Aerial Imagery of the North Carolina Coast: 2019-08-30 and 2019-09-02, Pre-Hurricane Dorian
Overlapping lakebed images and associated GNSS locations acquired near Dollar Point, Lake Tahoe, CA, March 2021
Geophysical and core sample data collected offshore San Francisco, California, during field activity 2019-649-FA from 2019-10-11 to 2019-10-18
Aerial Photogrammetry Data and Products of the North Carolina coast: 2018-10-06 to 2018-10-08, post-Hurricane Florence
Geophysical and core sample data collected offshore Oceanside to San Diego, southern California, during field activity 2018-638-FA from 2018-05-21 to 2018-05-26
Geophysical and sampling data collected offshore Oceanside, southern California during field activity 2017-686-FA from 2017-10-23 to 2017-10-31
Post-Hurricane Florence Aerial Imagery: Cape Fear to Duck, North Carolina, October 6-8, 2018
Bathymetry and acoustic-backscatter data collected in 2016 offshore the Elwha River mouth, Washington, during USGS Field Activity 2016-605-FA
Fires, floods and other extreme events – How watershed processes under climate change will shape our coastlines
Crowd-sourced SfM: Best practices for high resolution monitoring of coastal cliffs and bluffs
Structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry is an increasingly common technique for measuring landscape change over time by deriving 3D point clouds and surface models from overlapping photographs. Traditional change detection approaches require photos that are geotagged with a differential GPS (DGPS) location, which requires expensive equipment that can limit the ability of communities and researc
Fire (plus) flood (equals) beach: Coastal response to an exceptional river sediment discharge event
Human-in-the-Loop segmentation of earth surface imagery
Labeling poststorm coastal imagery for machine learning: Measurement of interrater agreement
Processing coastal imagery with Agisoft Metashape Professional Edition, version 1.6—Structure from motion workflow documentation
IntroductionStructure from motion (SFM) has become an integral technique in coastal change assessment; the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) used Agisoft Metashape Professional Edition photogrammetry software to develop a workflow that processes coastline aerial imagery collected in response to storms since Hurricane Florence in 2018. This report details step-by-step instructions to create three-dimen