Scott Dusterhoff
Scott Dusterhoff, MS
Program Managing Director & Senior Scientist
Sediment
Resilient Landscapes Program
Shoreline Resilience
Watershed Science & Management
Scott Dusterhoff is a Senior Scientist and Managing Director of the Resilient Landscapes Program at the San Francisco Estuary Institute. He is an experienced geomorphologist with a background in fluvial geomorphology, watershed hydrology, and estuarine/tidal wetland dynamics. For more than two decades, Scott has been working in coastal and upland watersheds throughout California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as in the Mid-Atlantic, on projects that use in-depth scientific investigations to inform sustainable ecosystem management approaches. He specializes in understanding the impacts of land disturbance and flow regulation on geomorphic processes and aquatic habitat for a variety of endangered species. He has extensive experience using a combination of field-based data, numerical modeling, and geospatial tools to characterize fluvial and coastal sediment transport dynamics and hydrologic/hydraulic processes. Scott received a B.S in Geology from the University of Maryland and an M.S. in Environmental Sciences and Hydrology from the University of Virginia.
Related Projects, News, and Events
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/projects/FloodControl2pt0%29IMG_2800.jpg?itok=T95D1eUY)
Flood Control 2.0 is an ambitious regional effort aimed at helping restore stream and wetland habitats, water quality, and shoreline resilience around San Francisco Bay. The project leverages local resources from several forward-looking flood control agencies to redesign major flood control channels so that they provide both future flood conveyance and ecological benefit under a changing climate. This timely project will develop a set of innovative approaches for bringing environmental benefits and cost-savings to flood protection efforts at the mouths of creeks that drain to San Francisco Bay.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/FC2pt0_SedimentHOT_dataset.jpg?itok=5zomshYA)
The transition zones between our watersheds and the Bay are often occupied by flood control channels that provide a variety of societal and environmental services but can require sediment removal to maintain flood conveyance capacity. The causes of sedimentation problems in these channels are often complex, driven in large part by a combination of high watershed sediment yield and excess tidal sediment accumulation due to decreased tidal scour.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/SFHE_cover.jpg?itok=QomYl0hf)
SFEI recently completed a landscape change analysis of lower San Francisquito Creek in the South Bay. The study was conducted as part of the larger Flood Control 2.0 project to increase regional flood protection will improving ecological diversity. This particular project illustrated the change in creek and bayland habitat conditions over the past 150 years.
SFEI scientists Sean Baumgarten and Scott Dusterhoff will present findings from the Lower Walnut Creek Historical Ecology Study at the Quadrennial Contra Costa County Creek and Watershed Symposium, to be held on December 3, 2015, at the Pleasant Hill Community Center.
SFEI recently released a resilient landscape vision for lower Novato Creek that incorporates habitat restoration actions into flood risk management. The vision, developed in coordination with a team of regional science experts, highlights opportunities for restoring and sustaining vital tidal wetland habitats around lower Novato Creek while supporting a high level of flood protection under rising San Francisco Bay water levels.
![Novato Creek](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/news/railroad.jpg?itok=PnE3UVgs)
A panel of nationally and internationally renowned scientists gathered in the Bay Area at the beginning of June 2015 to provide feedback on the EPA-funded Flood Control 2.0 project. SFEI hosted a two-day meeting with the panel that included a focused technical discussion with the project team and a broader discussion about future flood control and ecosystem management challenges at the Bay interface with invited guests from Bay Area flood control districts and natural resources agencies.
![](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/fc20.jpg?itok=F-f66f8V)
The April 2015 issue of Bay Nature features an article about Flood Control 2.0, an ambitious project being co-led by SFEI to develop a framework for designing resilient, multi-benefit flood control channels at the interface with the San Francisco Bay shoreline.
![Novato Creek Baylands](https://www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/styles/portfolio_sm/public/NovatoCreek_cover_small.png?itok=X3w9dkhD)
SFEI recently completed an historical ecology study of lower Novato Creek in Marin County. The study was conducted as part of the larger Flood Control 2.0 project and was aimed at illustrating the change in creek and bayland habitat conditions over the past 120 years following the installation of flood control levees.
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