CEE Seminar: Shorelines from Space – Assessing California’s Changing Coast with Remote Sensing

Abstract: The shoreline is one of the most dynamic settings on Earth because waves, tides and winds are continually moving water and sediment and eroding rocky coasts. These changes are especially prevalent along the California shoreline, where large winter storms and an eroding coast provide significant management and engineering challenges. This presentation will focus on the application of remote sensing technologies to develop new understanding about coastal change along California, including some recent surprises such as how upland wildfires influence shoreline change, the irregularity of seasonal shoreline patterns, and the footprint of humans on these coastal systems.

Bio: Jonathan Warrick is a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Santa Cruz, California. His research focuses on coastal change and the movement of sediment from rivers to the sea. Warrick has led efforts to characterize the outcomes of the massive dam removal project on the Elwha River of Washington in collaboration with tribal, federal, state and local partners. He is currently leading the USGS Remote Sensing Coastal Change project, which has collected and evaluated remote sensing data to better understand changes to U.S. coasts from wildfires, floods, landslides, hurricanes and other storm events.