Lompoc, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 14.9 miles south of Lompoc, CA
The coast 14.9 miles south of Lompoc, CA has been retreating at a measured 0.18 feet a year, USGS's own long-term rate for this stretch, built from historical shoreline positions rather than a single survey. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 1.8 feet over the last decade.
The grain of this number
This is a roughly 3.5-mile stretch of coast, not one address or parcel - USGS's own transects run every few hundred feet, but that's finer than any one property needs, so this page reports the stretch nearest Lompoc, CA. Centered near 34.45°N, 120.40°W. 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.
25 years at this rate
If 0.18 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 14.9 miles south of Lompoc, CA would retreat roughly 5 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.
Where this fits nationally
Averaging 91 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 100% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.1 ft/yr. This segment ranks 531 of 1211 measured US coastal segments, ordered from fastest erosion to fastest growth. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 104 nationally for erosion belongs to Madaket, MA, 2743 miles from this stretch, measured at 2.69 ft/yr, many times over this stretch's own rate. Buellton, CA, 2.9 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, reading slight erosion at 0.18 ft/yr.
Not this whole stretch, just Lompoc itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.