The Los Angeles Times recently published a piece on the changing wave dynamics along California’s coast. In this article, several experts were asked to weigh in on a recent study demonstrating that (1) the average height of winter waves along California’s coast have increased about 12 inches in the last 50 years and that (2) intense storms have been creating waves of 13 feet almost twice as often now than in the mid 1900s.
Among those experts commenting on the new study was Blum Center flood and coastal erosion expert, Dr. Brett Sanders.
Sanders’ take away from the new findings: coastal erosion is going to be even more challenging to hold back. He notes that those more frequent and larger waves will wreak destruction on the sandy coastlines, especially when there is less recovery time between major storms for sand to naturally replenish.
Read the full article on Los Angeles Times.