Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
San Francisco Bay Sand and Mud Research Projects
These USGS research projects made major contributions to the studies of San Francisco Bay sand and mud.
The objective of this project is to identify the physical processes and anthropogenic influences that have resulted in significant morphological changes to the San Francisco Bay Coastal System at a range of spatial and temporal scales. This, in turn, will aid in the assessment of the future impact of sea level rise, climate change, and sediment management practices on the beaches, tidal wetlands, and submarine resources. The project's development reflects the importance of an integrated, system-wide approach toward understanding sediment transport pathways from the delta mouth to the shelf.
The USGS is conducting a study that documents and analyzes the processes that control the sand transport and sedimentation patterns of Ocean Beach, a National Park site within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This area encompasses a complicated coastal setting that is impacted by the tidal influence of San Francisco Bay, as well as the southwest and northwest Pacific swell. High-energy conditions at this site have restricted comprehensive field surveys in the past, but recent innovations in field techniques now make it possible to perform detailed analysis of the physical processes operating on high energy coastlines, such as Ocean Beach.
Our Coast Our Future (web site hosted by PRBO)
Our Coast Our Future (OCOF) is a collaborative, user-driven project focused on providing San Francisco Bay Area coastal resource and land use managers and planners locally relevant, online maps and tools to help understand, visualize, and anticipate vulnerabilities to sea level rise and storms within the bay and on the outer coast from Half Moon Bay to Bodega Bay.
The CoSMoS system for Southern California has been set up as part of the USGS Southern California Coastal Hazards project. The system consists of several numerical models that generate real-time forecasts of water levels, wave heights, coastal erosion and flooding for a period of up to 3 days in advance. The latest model predictions are posted on this website every 12 hours. In addition to making real-time forecasts, the CoSMoS system has also been applied to simulate a number of historical storms and hypothetical scenarios.
The California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP) is a cooperative program to create a comprehensive coastal/marine geologic and habitat base map series for all of California's state waters. CSMP focus is to fund ship-based collection of high-resolution sonar data, the undersea equivalent of satellite remote sensing data in terrestrial mapping.
The National Seafloor Mapping and Benthic Habitat Studies Project: Pacific strives to produce maps and geologic information that are useful for marine resource management. The project utilizes traditional data collected by the Program including sampling, bottom video, sidescan sonar, and multibeam sonar data. The project develops new methods of combining these data to produce habitat and surficial geology maps.