Beach Morphology Monitoring Program

Beach Profiles - The Columbia River Cell, Clatsop Plains

The Columbia River littoral cell (CRLC) extends from Tillamook Head, Oregon to Point Grenville, Washington. The coastline is some 165 km in length and consists of beaches and spits that have prograded seaward over the past 4-5000 years as the rate of sea level rise slowed following the end of the last glaciation. The CRLC is subdivided by three large depositional estuaries: Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, and the lower Columbia River estuary. The estuaries and two headlands divide the CRLC into four coastal sub-cells that include the Clatsop Plains on the Oregon coast, and Long Beach Peninsula, Grayland Plains, and North Beach located on the Washington coast.

Beach surveys commenced along the CRLC (including the Clatsop Plains) in the Fall of 1997 as part of the Southwest Washington Coastal Erosion Study.  The surveys are undertaken on a quarterly basis using the same GPS technology as adopted in Oregon. 

To access information about the beach study sites please select a profile line on the map below or select another region: