Shorelines_Oct2012_Sept2014: Hurricane Sandy Beach Response and Recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline and Beach Profile Data, October 2012 to October 2014.

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Shorelines_Oct2012_Sept2014: Hurricane Sandy Beach Response and Recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline and Beach Profile Data, October 2012 to October 2014.
Abstract:
This shapefile consists of Fire Island, NY pre- and post-storm shoreline data collected from October 2012 to September 2014. This dataset contains 13 Mean High Water (MHW) shorelines for Fire Island, NY (A total of 15 dates, where two shorelines were collected over multiple days). Prior to and following Hurricane Sandy in October, 2012, continuous alongshore DGPS data were collected to assess the positional changes of the shoreline (MHW - 0.46 m NAVD88) and the upper portion of the beach. Over the course of 23 months, 13 surveys were conducted collecting data along shore-parallel tracks to capture the base of the dune, the mid-beach, and the upper and lower foreshore. The alongshore tracks extend from just west of Fire Island Lighthouse to the western flank of the storm-induced inlet breach at Old Inlet.
The MHW shoreline (0.46 m North American Vertical Datum of 1988 [NAVD 88]; Weber and others, 2005) is derived from the field data by using an interpolation method that creates a series of equally-spaced cross-shore profiles between the two survey lines that flank the MHW contour. The foreshore slope is assumed to be uniform on each profile. Using this slope and the two surveyed positions on each cross-shore profile, a simple geometric calculation is done to find where each profile line intersects the MHW contour.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 20150325, Shorelines_Oct2012_Sept2014: Hurricane Sandy Beach Response and Recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline and Beach Profile Data, October 2012 to October 2014.: USGS Data Series Publication DS 931, U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: None
    This is part of the following larger work.

    Hapke, Cheryl J., Brenner, Owen, Hehre, Rachel, and Reynolds, B.J., 20130827, Coastal Change from Hurricane Sandy and the 2012-13 Winter Storm Season- Fire Island, New York: USGS Open File Report 2013-1231, U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Suggested citation: Hapke, C.J., Brenner, Owen, Hehre, Rachel, and Reynolds, B.J., 2013, Coastal change from Hurricane Sandy and the 2012-13 winter storm season-Fire Island, New York: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 20131231, 37 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1231/.
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -73.228552
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -72.89244
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 40.729085
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 40.621828
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Calendar_Date: 28-Oct-2012
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):
      • String (15)
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      The map projection used is Transverse Mercator.
      Projection parameters:
      Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.9996
      Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -75.0
      Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.0
      False_Easting: 500000.0
      False_Northing: 0.0
      Planar coordinates are encoded using coordinate pair
      Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000000002220024164500956
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000000002220024164500956
      Planar coordinates are specified in meters
      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.0.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222101.
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    Shorelines_OCT2012_Sept2014
    Vector shorelines (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    FID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI) Coordinates defining the features.
    Id
    feature number (Source: ESRI) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
    Date_
    Date assigned to MHW shorleine position; date of original survey as indicated on source material in the format mm/dd/yyyy. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 10. Date expressed as mm/dd/yyyy.
    ACCURACY
    Estimate of shoreline position uncertainty. Actual shoreline position is expected to be within the range of this value (plus or minus, meters). See the section on horizontal positional accuracy for more detailed description. (Source: USGS)
    Range of values
    Minimum:1.2
    Maximum:7.8
    YEAR_
    Year of shoreline collection. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 10, date expressed as YYYY
    Agency
    Originator Agency of material used to derive shoreline. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 20
    Proxy
    Method used to determine shoreline. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 50
    Data_Source
    Source (type) of data used to generate the shoreline. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 50
    NOTES_
    Notes about each shoreline, including a description of coverage and data gaps alongshore. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 150
    Originator
    The person or persons responsible for interpreting the tabular field data to the MHW shoreline. (Source: USGS) Character string of length 100
    Shape_Leng
    Length of feature in meters units (UTM zone 18N NAD 83) automatically calculated by ESRI software in the geodatabase. (Source: ESRI)
    Range of values
    Minimum:6201.007
    Maximum:30001.1

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • U.S. Geological Survey
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727)-502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) mounted a substantial effort in response to Hurricane Sandy including an assessment of the morphological impacts to the beach and dune system at Fire Island, New York. Field surveys of the beach and dunes collected just prior to and after the U.S. landfall, which occurred on October 29th, 2012, were used to quantify change in several focus areas.
The migration of the shoreline through time is assessed by quantifying the net shoreline movement (NSM) over different time periods by using the interpolated MHW shorelines and 50 m spaced transects in the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS; Thieler and others, 2009).

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    DGPS DATA DATE (source 1 of 1)
    Reynolds, B.J., Brenner, Owen, and Hapke, Cheryl J., Unpublished material, FIIS DGPS shoreline data.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    In order to examine the dynamics of the shoreline from Hurricane Sandy and monitor the continued response and recovery, surveys of continuous alongshore differential global positioning system (DGPS) data were collected in conjunction with cross-shore profiles. Multiple shore-parallel tracks were driven to capture the base of the dune, the mid-beach, and the upper and lower foreshore along the length of the island from Fire Island lighthouse to the western side of the storm-induced inlet breach at Old Inlet.
    Initial surveys were conducted one day prior to landfall and immediate post-storm surveys were conducted over the three days following Hurricane Sandy. The beaches and dunes were resurveyed monthly from December 2012 through April 2013, and bi-monthly surveys are presently ongoing. The USGS is continuing to monitor the beaches and dunes to evaluate how much of the sand removed by Sandy returns to the beach via natural beach-building processes.
    Type_of_Source_Media: .csv file
    Source_Contribution:
    Tabular DGPS data (collected in ASCII format) was converted to vector digital data and edited using ESRI ArcMap v 10.0 to publish shoreline data in a GIS environment.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 30-Jan-2014 (process 1 of 8)
    MHW Shoreline interpolation from tabular DGPS Data (October 28 2012-Dec 2013)
    Continuous alongshore DGPS data were collected to assess the positional changes of the MHW shoreline and the upper portion of the beach. Data were collected along shore-parallel tracks to capture the base of the dune, the mid-beach, and the upper and lower foreshore. For each survey date, ASCII point data was imported into Matlab (v R2012a) and processed as follows:
    For surveys October 28 2012-Dec 2013 the MHW shoreline (0.46 m North American Vertical Datum of 1988 [NAVD 88]; Weber and others, 2005) is derived from the field data by using an interpolation method that creates a series of equally-spaced cross-shore profiles between the two survey lines that flank the MHW contour. The foreshore slope is assumed to be uniform on each profile. Using this slope and the two surveyed positions on each cross-shore profile, a simple geometric calculation is done to find where each profile line intersects the MHW contour. At this interesection a point is generated, and the series of points making up the MHW shoreline are appended to create a polyline shoreline.
    The resulting ployline shapefile (for each method) was named FIIS_shoreline_DATE, where date is the date of the field survey. For example: MHW extracted polyline for October 28 2012 would be named FIIS_shoreline_2012Oct28.shp Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey - Woods Hole Coastal & Marine Science Center
    Attn: Amy Farris
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-457-2288 (voice)
    508-547-2310 (FAX)
    afarris@usgs.gov
    Data sources used in this process:
    • DGPS DATA DATE
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • FIIS_Shorlines_DATE
    Date: 08-Sep-2014 (process 2 of 8)
    MHW Shoreline interpolation from tabular DGPS Data (Jan 2014 - Sept 2014)
    Continuous alongshore DGPS data were collected to assess the positional changes of the MHW shoreline and the upper portion of the beach. Data were collected along shore-parallel tracks to capture the base of the dune, the mid-beach, and the upper and lower foreshore. For each survey date, ASCII point data was imported into Matlab (v R2012a) and processed as follows:
    For surveys January 2014 and beyond, a new, survey approach was implemented that was designed to improve surface interpolation by collecting a more dense network xyz points along the beach face. For these surveys, alongshore transects are collected at the berm crest, low water mark and mid-beach face. In addition, a sinusoidal transect is collected by driving from the water's edge to the top of the berm crest at approximately 45 degrees to the orientation of the shoreline. The xyz data are used to create an interpolated surface from which the MHW contour is extracted.
    The resulting ployline shapefile (for each method) was named FIIS_shoreline_DATE, where date is the date of the field survey. For example: MHW extracted polyline for October 28 2012 would be named FIIS_shoreline_2012Oct28.shp Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727)-502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov
    Data sources used in this process:
    • DGPS DATA DATE
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • FIIS_Shorlines_DATE
    Date: 10-Oct-2014 (process 3 of 8)
    The shoreline file FIIS_Shorlines_DATE was coded with attribute fields: ID, DATE_, and UNCERT (Uncertainty). These fields are required for the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS), which was used to calculate shoreline change rates. Additional fields: Agency, Proxy, Data_Source, Notes_, and Originator_, were added to comply with the existing historical shoreline shapefile database for Fire Island. Agency refers to the contact organization (ex: USGS, NPS), Proxy is the shoreline proxy used to derive the shoreline (ex: MHW, HWL), Data_Source is the material or source of the shoreline data (ex: lidar, air photos, GPS), Notes_ indicates the extent of the shoreline data along Fire Island, and the Originator_ attribute is the contact organization and contact person responsible for the generation of the shoreline. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727)-502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov
    Date: 10-Oct-2014 (process 4 of 8)
    Calculation of shoreline uncertainty: In order to determine the uncertainties associated with individual shorelines, a methodology following Morton and Miller (2005) and Hapke and others, (2006) was used to estimate a positional error value for each shoreline. The shoreline position uncertainty is estimated using a square root of the sum of the squares of multiple terms. Total shoreline positional error is a function of the errors inherent in the source data/data collection, and those errors generated in the creation and identification of the vector shoreline.
    Oct 2012–Dec 2013 The terms used for the interpolated shorelines derived from October 2012 to December 2013 were: 1) predicted MHW uncertainty - an estimate of interpolated shoreline position accuracy based on the slope, and distance between track lines (1 - 2.5 m); 2) average measured MHW error - the positional difference between the interpolated MHW shoreline and the location of the MHW elevation on the cross-shore profiles from the same survey date (1 - 7.5 m); 3) collection and equipment error - derived from static portions of each survey (0.07 - 0.12 m); 4) A term to account for horizontal positional variation found when driving the GPS (horizontal to the Polaris) on a sloped surface (0.02 - 0.1 m). Individual shoreline uncertainties are found in the shapefile [ACCURACY] attribute and in the metadata file.
    Jan 2014–Sept 2014 For surveys January 2014 and September 2014 the MHW elevation was extracted from a surface generated from field collected data points. The terms used to estimate error for the extracted shorelines were: 1) average measured MHW - the positional difference between the interpolated MHW shoreline and the location of the MHW elevation on the cross-shore profiles from the same survey date (2.2-3.2 m; Sept 2014 used an average of previous time periods, as a large displacement of MHW due to high waves occurred in the day between shoreline and profile surveys); 2) collection and equipment error - derived from static portions of each survey (0.07 - 0.1 m); and 3) uncertainty of the interpolated surface estimated by withholding 10% of the original data points and calculating an root mean square error (RMSE) of the difference between the withheld points and the surface (0.04 – 0.06 m). Individual shoreline uncertainties are found in the shapefile [ACCURACY] attribute and in the metadata file. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727)-502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov
    Date: 10-Oct-2014 (process 5 of 8)
    The shoreline file's updated uncertainty rates were imported into a personal geodatabase in ArcCatalog (v.10.0) for use with the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS v.4.0) software to perform rate calculations. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727)-502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov
    Date: 10-Oct-2014 (process 6 of 8)
    All shorelines were appended into one feature class (in a personal geodatabase). ArcToolbox>>Data Management Tools>>General>>Append: select each FIIS_shoreline_DATE. Shorelines for the following dates were appended: Oct 28 2012, Nov 01/02 2012, Dec 01 2012, Dec 12/13 2012, Jan 10 2013, Feb 14 2013, Mar 13 2013, Apr 10 2013, June 24 2013, Sept 19 2013, Dec 04 2013, Jan 30 2014 and Sept 08 2014. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727)-502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov
    Data sources used in this process:
    • FIIS_Shorlines_DATE
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • Shorelines_Oct2012_Sept2014
    Date: 13-Mar-2017 (process 7 of 8)
    Keywords section of metadata optimized for discovery in USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Data Catalog. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Alan O. Allwardt
    Contractor -- Information Specialist
    2885 Mission Street
    Santa Cruz, CA

    831-460-7551 (voice)
    831-427-4748 (FAX)
    aallwardt@usgs.gov
    Date: 13-Oct-2020 (process 8 of 8)
    Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?
    Thieler, E.R., Himmelstoss, E.A., Zichichi, J.L., and Ergul, A., 2009, Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.3 - An ArcGIS extension for calculating shoreline change: Open-File Report 2008-1278, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal & Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: Current version of software at time of use was 4.3
    Morton, R. A., and Miller, T.L., 2005, National assessment of shoreline change: Part 2: Historical shoreline changes and associated coastal land loss along the U.S. Southeast Atlantic Coast: Open-File Report 2005-1401, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal & Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: none
    Hapke, C.J., Reid, D., Richmond, B.M., Ruggiero, P., and List, J., 2006, National assessment of shoreline change: Part 3: Historical shoreline changes and associated coastal land loss along the sandy shorelines of the California coast: Open-File Report 2006-1219, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal & Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: none

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    The data provided here is a compilation of shorelines that were derived using USGS-specific field-collection methods over the course of 23 months following hurricane Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey on October 29, 2012. The table attributes associated with Shorelines_Oct2012_Sept2014.shp are based on the requirements of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software and have gone through a series of quality assurance procedures. For more information see http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/DSAS/
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    In order to determine the uncertainties associated with individual shorelines, a methodology following Morton and Miller (2005) and Hapke and others, (2006) was used to estimate a positional error value for each shoreline. The shoreline position uncertainty is estimated using a square root of the sum of the squares of multiple terms. Total shoreline positional error is a function of the errors inherent in the source data/data collection, and those errors generated in the creation and identification of the vector shoreline. The specific terms used in the calculation will be: 1) Predicted MHW uncertainty - an estimate of interpolated shoreline position accuracy based on the slope, and distance between track lines (1 - 2.5 m); 2) Average measured MHW error - the manual measurement of MHW shoreline compared to the position of MHW on the cross-shore profiles (1 - 7.5 m); 3) Collection error - derived from static portions of each survey (0.07 - 0.12 m); 4) And finally an estimated error based on slope of the beach (0.02 - 0.1 m)
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    This shoreline file is complete and contains all shoreline segments derived from Pre and Post-Sandy data collection efforts. These data adequately represented the shoreline position at the time of the survey.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Adjacent shoreline segments do not overlap and are not necessarily continuous. Shorelines were quality checked for accuracy.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints:
Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey as the originator of the dataset.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    rehenderson@usgs.gov
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? Downloadable Data: USGS Data Series Publication 931
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    Neither the U.S. Government, the Department of the Interior, nor the USGS, nor any of their employees, contractors, or subcontractors, make any warranty, express or implied, nor assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, nor represent that its use would not infringe on privately owned rights. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: This WinZip file contains a shapefile of 13 Mean High Water (MHW) shorelines for Fire Island, NY. in format WinZip (version 15.5) ESRI polyline shapefile
      Network links: http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0931/ds931_data-downloads.html
    • Cost to order the data: None

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 13-Oct-2020
Metadata author:
U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
Attn: Rachel E. Henderson (Hehre)
600 4th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL
USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone (voice)
rehenderson@usgs.gov
Hours_of_Service: 0800-1600 Eastern Time
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/spcmsc/DS931_Shorelines_Oct2012_Sept2014_metadata.faq.html>
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