WASHINGTON COASTAL HAZARDS RESILIENCE NETWORK
Our goal is to strengthen the resilience of Washington’s coastal communities through collaboration, education, and knowledge exchange. This website provides a curated selection of relevant science, best practices, and other resources related to coastal hazards in Washington.
This website will guide you in the process of learning about coastal hazards, direct you to Washington-specific tools and resources, provide you with examples of projects happening along the coast, and connect you with people who are involved in this work.
Featured
Oblique Shoreline Aerial Photos
By Hugh Shipman, Washington Department of Ecology
The Department of Ecology recently updated its popular shoreline photo website, improving access to multiple series of oblique aerial photos of Washington’s coast. These photos are a key element of Ecology’s Coastal Atlas and are a great complement to the vertical imagery readily available on Google and Bing’s mapping sites.
Screenshot of the Ecology’s Coastal Atlas. Click here to follow link
The oblique perspective is intuitive and easily understood by the general public. In addition, the high resolution of the images provides information not readily seen in other datasets. The discrete images are easy to download and are readily included in emails, documents, and presentations.
The photos offer seamless coverage of Washington’s entire marine shoreline and the recent series also include the Columbia River and many of Washington’s larger lakes. The photo viewer allows easy comparisons between different time periods. With financial support from NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, the most recent photos were completed in 2016-2017, but the site also provides access to aerials from 1976-1977, 1992-1994, 2000-2002, and 2006-2007. The photo viewer is integrated with our Coastal Atlas, allowing access to many other types of information along with the photos.
Screenshot of the Shoreline Photo Viewer. Click here to follow link.
Screenshot of the Shoreline Photo Viewer. Click here to follow link.
As part of this project, we completed a report (link to guidance) that captures the history and many uses of the photos – including information from CHRN members. Among other important uses, we found that these photos can be valuable for evaluating and communicating coastal hazards. The oblique images are particularly useful for looking at steep slopes that are typically hard to discern in conventional vertical imagery. They’ve been used for mapping bluff geology, identifying landslides and erosion patterns, and evaluating at-risk structures and stabilization measures. The photos would be a very useful baseline following a major disaster, whether it be a major coastal storm, a tsunami, an earthquake, or a wet winter with abundant landsliding.
Upcoming Events
Click here to view the full events calendar
Tue
21
North Pacific Coast Marine Resource Committee meeting
January 21 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Mon
27
Wahkiakum County Marine Resources Committee meeting
January 27 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Feb
18
North Pacific Coast Marine Resource Committee meeting
February 18 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Introducing a new option for connecting with CHRN: Open Form/Drop-in Office Hours!
We are happy to announce that we are now offering “office hours” in the form of a virtual open forum/drop-in option. This new opportunity spawns from 2024 Annual Meeting Feedback, which included lots of interest in connecting more frequently with other CHRN members throughout the year. Helpful info:
- What: Open Forum/Drop-In Office Hours
- Why: Ask questions to CHRN coordinators and Members, provide and receive updates on coastal resilience work, connect with other Members, etc.
- When: CHRN coordinators will be available for 45 min after each CHRN Lunch & Learn event for the Open Forum/Drop-in, see Lunch and Learn Series page here. The next Open Forum/Drop-in office hours will be November 19 at 12pm (following the Lunch & Learn from 11am-12pm).
- How: Zoom meeting (use this link here).
- Who: Anyone is invited to hop in to these! Drop-in to ask questions, provide updates, or just to say hello!
The contents of this website, including the blog and links to other sites, are provided for informational use and may not reflect the positions and priorities of all network members, including Washington Sea Grant and the Department of Ecology. Comments posted to this site do not constitute formal public comment. Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Sea Grant, and network members do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on any linked websites.
