How the USGS Models the Coast with Patrick Barnard

December 18, 2022

Come along as we explore the CoSMoS!

On this episode, hosts Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham speak with Patrick Barnard about the role that the U.S. Geological Survey plays on the American Shoreline. Patrick is the Research Director for the Climate Impacts and Coastal Processes Team, which includes overseeing the development and application of the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS), coastal monitoring and process-based studies of beaches across California, and research investigating the link between climate variability and coastal hazards across the Pacific Ocean basin.

Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.