Solvang, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 8.9 miles south of Solvang, CA
The coast 8.9 miles south of Solvang, CA shows no statistically significant trend either way. USGS's transects measured a rate here, but it's smaller than the survey's own margin of error for this stretch, so calling it "eroding" or "growing" would overstate what the data actually shows.
The grain of this number
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Solvang, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 34.47°N, 120.11°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.
Where this fits nationally
Averaging 6 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 50% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.16 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.03 ft/yr reading would land it 802 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 1124 nationally for growth belongs to Santa Monica, CA, 96 miles from this stretch, measured at 1.21 ft/yr. 2.4 miles away, Solvang, CA is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
One address near Solvang: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.