PWA’s coastal expertise encompasses a variety of relevant coastal management scales. Often shoreline development is built in hazardous or flood prone areas with the long term impacts seen along our beaches. PWA’s innovative approach to tackling coastal projects ensures that we apply an understanding of the coastal system to solve specific problems and meet project objectives. Our staff of hydrologists, engineers, and geomorphologists apply state of the art hydrodynamic, sediment transport, conceptual geomorphologic, and flood inundation models along with GIS and field surveys to create solutions for a variety of coastal issues.

At regional scales, we work on projects related to sea-level rise, sediment budgets, and shoreline change. We are developing regional sediment management plans, identifying sources and sinks of sediment as well as the transport pathways to provide guidance on approaches to reduce beach erosion. We also work on shoreline management plans addressing the spectrum of coastal hazards - flooding, erosion, habitat alterations and morphological issues. Our regional planning efforts provide a variety of policy, management, and engineering implementation options for coastal communities to adapt to their individual setting.

At site specific scales, we design innovative or “soft” shore protection projects as well as more traditional shoreline construction and armoring .We have helped design and engineer most of the managed retreat projects on the U.S. west coast including Surfer’s Point and Pacifica Beach: These are designed to mimic or make room for natural processes to function while minimizing coastal hazards and maximizing recreational opportunities.