Coastal Communities, Sea Level Rise, and Human Security featuring Dr. Curt Storlazzi, U.S. Geological Survey

In this episode of “Through the Human Geography Lens”, hosts Gwyneth Holt and Eric Rasmussen sit down with Curt Storlazzi, a research geologist and oceanographer with the US Geological Survey’s Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, who’s also a researcher with the UC-Santa Cruz Institute for Marine Sciences.

01:20 Focus of past and current research on coral reefs and the impact of wave circulation.

https://www.chasingcoral.com/

02:15 Island infrastructure vulnerability to sea level rise.

03:10 The threat of more frequent “overwash events” from sea level rise.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aap9741

05:10 Geographic specificity for island research – especially within US Pacific territories. 

06:35 “Boundaries” research with the Pacific Community (Suva, Fiji)

Pacific Community: https://spc.int/

                Vulnerable Basepoints Project, now https://gem.spc.int/projects/resilient-boundaries 

Geoscience Australia: https://www.ga.gov.au/

07:15 Every sandy bump a meter above the waves can define an Exclusive Economic Zones – 200 miles of fishing, mining.

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/useez.html

09:25 How is data being collected in these remote locations? Discussion of tiered trust in source datasets, and triaging islands of concern.

12:20 LIDAR on land and bathymetry in water – accurate and rigorous gold standards, but expensive. Now looking at SfM and satellite colorimetric pseudo-bathymetry. 

Visual SfM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ceiOd8Yx3g

Storlazzi Pseudo-bathymetry paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303697607_Benthic_Habitat_Map_of_US_Coral_Reef_Task_Force_Faga%27alu_Bay_Priority_Study_Area_Tutuila_American_Samoa

Pseudo-bathymetry for the enthusiast: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/6/859/htm

14:50 Calibration / Validation efforts with Office of Naval Research

15:50 NASA’s Structure from Motion Mars Rover research adapted for earth observation.

EROS Earth Observing Group: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros

17:05 ICESAT 2 satellite laser altimeter. Global calibration/validation support.

https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/

https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/space-lasers

17:55 Is any data available to the public? Are the models available?

American Samoa Bathymetry above

LIDAR downloads: https://gisgeography.com/top-6-free-lidar-data-sources/

20:45 Human security concerns becoming visible from his research

21:30 Island limitations – stranded populations, climate refugees, and all adaptation is expensive. Diasporas require thought. 

22:30 Floating Cities being tested in Busan, Korea and the Maldives.

https://oceanixcity.com/busan/

https://maldivesfloatingcity.com/

22:55 Low-lying atoll coral reefs losing the capacity to buffer vulnerable islands. 

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