TAG: California

Study warns Southern California beaches eroding from sea-level rise

March 29, 2017By
Exposed bedrock on the beach, below the University of California, Santa Barbara, in February 2017. (Credit: Daniel Hoover, USGS.)

Using a newly developed computer model called CoSMoS-COAST (Coastal Storm Modeling System – Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool), scientists predict that with limited human intervention, 31 to 67 percent of Southern California beaches may become completely eroded (up to existing coastal infrastructure or sea cliffs) by the year 2100 under scenarios of sea-level rise of one to two meters. “Beaches are... read more

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Esri’s disaster recovery tools at work in Louisiana, California

August 23, 2016By
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Esri technology has been in full force in Louisiana during both the search-and-rescue phase and cleanup and disaster recovery efforts following massive flooding in Baton Rouge. Esri’s ArcGis Online is providing a way to collect, monitor and report field activities to be sure all departments are on the same page using real time imagery, data and apps. In an emergency situation, location is a... read more

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New California Legislation Limits Paparazzi’s Use of Drones

October 7, 2015By

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday to expand privacy protections to prevent paparazzi from flying drones over private property, reports sUAS news. The bill, AB 856, changes the definition of a “physical invasion of privacy” to include sending a drone into the airspace above someone’s land to make a recording or take a photo. Brown previously vetoed in September a proposal... read more

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Track Wildfires Across Western U.S. with Interactive Maps

August 5, 2015By
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Esri has published an interactive Wildfire Public Information Map and a 2015 California Wildfire Activity Map. Wildfire Public Information Map The Wildfire Public Information Map provides continuously updated information about wildfires and their perimeters from the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies. It provides live weather warnings and wind information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as live weather radar... read more

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USGS Offers New Series of California Offshore Maps

May 22, 2015By
Map of sediment thickness in state waters offshore of San Francisco. About 21,000 years ago, sea level in this area was about 125 m lower and the shelf offshore San Francisco was an emergent land surface. At that time, the Sacramento River drained through the Golden Gate and eroded a valley ("the San Francisco paleovalley”) that was filled with sediment during subsequent sea-level rise. The thickest young sediment in the region occurs in the “San Andreas graben,” a basin that formed by crustal down dropping along the offshore section of the San Andreas fault. There is very little sediment on the shelf offshore of southern Ocean Beach (a pattern that extends south to Pescadero), a factor important for understanding and forecasting coastal erosion in this area.

Three new sets of maps detail the offshore bathymetry, habitats, geology and submarine environment of the seafloor off the coast of San Francisco, Drakes Bay and Tomales Point. Critical for resource managers, the maps are part of the California Seafloor and Coastal Mapping Program, a series of maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey with support from the California Ocean Protection Council, NOAA and 15... read more

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