Projects and Publications

Publications

• Urban Coast is a peer reviewed journal published by CRI annually that presents the findings of CRI projects, along with other regional research.
• State of the Bay is a comprehensive assessment of the environmental condition of Santa Monica Bay, its adjacent waters, watershed and other coastal features. The five-year summary document is a requirement of the USEPA-supported efforts to ascertain progress related to the Bay Restoration Plan.
• CRI hosts a symposium every five years to celebrate and disseminate the findings of the State of the Bay to a broad audience of stakeholders, municipalities, agencies, academics and organizations.

Current Projects

A selection of just some of the projects carried out by the Coastal Research Institute:

• Water quality projects that assess the amount of nutrients in runoff, and study the effects of biofiltration systems in removing pollutants during dry and wet weather.
• Microplastic projects that analyze coastal sediment samples for microplastics and microfibers, as well as what their source is.
• Healthy beaches projects that revitalize the coastal plant and wildlife community in different areas, while also assessing how beaches can be protected from rising sea levels brought on by climate change.
• Projects that gauge how sea level rise will impact rocky intertidal habitats.
• GIS projects that have produced detailed vegetation maps of the LAX Dunes, showing what plants are native and non-native. This helps to prioritize areas during community ice plant removal events.