Buellton, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 10.6 miles south of Buellton, CA
USGS's shoreline-change data puts this stretch, 10.6 miles south of Buellton, CA, at 0.18 feet of erosion a year on average, a long-term rate for this specific ~3.5-mile section, not one storm's damage. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 1.8 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Buellton, CA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 34.47, -120.25. The survey behind it runs to 1852-2016, in USGS's California assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.
What 0.18 ft/yr means over time
Run 10.6 miles south of Buellton, CA's 0.18 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 5 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
Where this fits nationally
21 transects feed this segment's number; 100% of them individually measured retreat. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.14 ft/yr. Among the 1211 US coastal segments with a measurable trend, this one ranks 529 for erosion, 1 being the fastest-retreating coast in the dataset. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Bellport, NY sits at national rank 282 for erosion (0.56 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 2597 miles from here. 3 miles up the coast, Solvang, CA shows 0.17 ft/yr of eroding.
One address near Buellton: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.