Heavy rains, high tides and big surf this winter contributed to significant bluff erosion this year.
In a presentation to the City Council May 15, Dr. Adam Young of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said that on average, Del Mar's bluffs retreated about 20 centimeters. That's nearly twice as much as that of a typical year.
The estimates do not apply to the bluffs north of the San Dieguito River inlet, Young said.
Young explained that Scripps Coastal Mapping and Erosion Research tracks bluff movement with GPS survey tools, inclinometers and light detection and ranging, or lidar, which uses pulsed lasers in aircraft to measure ranges to the surface below.
Watch meeting
Open presentation