Vandenberg AFB, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 7.8 miles southwest of Vandenberg AFB, CA?
The coast 7.8 miles southwest of Vandenberg AFB, 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.
What this reading actually covers
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Vandenberg AFB, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 34.66°N, 120.62°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.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 77 individual transects averaged together, 70% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.22 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.06 ft/yr reading would land it 703 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. For scale: West Sayville, NY, 2602 miles away, ranks 1057 of 1211 nationally for growth, 0.66 ft/yr. Lompoc, CA, 1.9 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
Not this whole stretch, just Vandenberg AFB itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.