FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp - Fire Island National Seashore Wilderness Breach Shoreline Data Collected from Fire Island, New York, October 2014 to October 2017

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Frequently anticipated questions:


What does this data set describe?

Title:
FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp - Fire Island National Seashore Wilderness Breach Shoreline Data Collected from Fire Island, New York, October 2014 to October 2017
Abstract:
Hurricane Sandy made U.S. landfall, coincident with astronomically high tides, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 29, 2012. The storm, the largest on historical record in the Atlantic basin, affected an extensive area of the east coast of the United States. The highest waves and storm surge were focused along the heavily populated New York and New Jersey coasts. At the height of the storm, a record significant wave height of 9.6 meters (m) was recorded at the wave buoy offshore of Fire Island, New York. During the storm, an overwash channel opened a breach in the location of Old Inlet, in the Otis Pike High Dunes Wilderness Area. This breach is referred to as the Wilderness Breach (fig. 1).
Fire Island, New York is the site of a long term coastal morphologic change and processes project conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). One of the objectives of the project was to understand the morphologic evolution of the barrier system on a variety of time scales (days - years - decades - centuries). In response to Hurricane Sandy, this effort continued with the intention of resolving storm impact and the response and recovery of the beach. The day before Hurricane Sandy made landfall (October 28, 2012), a USGS field team conducted differential global positioning system (DGPS) surveys at Fire Island to quantify the pre-storm morphologic state of the beach and dunes. The area was re-surveyed after the storm, as soon as access to the island was possible. In order to fully capture the recovery of the barrier system, the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Fire Island Study was established to include collection in the weeks, months, and years following the storm.
As part of the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Fire Island Study, the beach is monitored periodically to enable better understanding of post-Hurricane Sandy recovery. The alongshore state of the beach is recorded using a DGPS to collect data around the mean high water elevation (MHW; 0.46 meters, North American Vertical Datum of 1988 [NAVD88]) to derive a shoreline, and the cross-shore response and recovery are measured along a series of 15 profiles. Monitoring continued in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy with additional monthly data collection through April 2013 and repeat surveys every 2–3 months thereafter until October 2014. Recurring surveys have been conducted through October 2017. Beginning in October 2014 the USGS also began collecting shoreline data at the Wilderness Breach. The shoreline data collected was an approximation of the MHW shoreline. The operator walked an estimated MHW elevation above the water line and below the berm crest, using knowledge of tides and local conditions to interpret a consistent shoreline. See below for survey collection dates for all data types.
The shapefile, FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp, consists of Fire Island, NY breach shorelines collected by following an interpreted MHW shoreline as identified in the field. Oct 28 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Nov 01 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Nov 04 2012 (Cross-shore data only) Dec 01 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Dec 12 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 10 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Feb 13 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Mar 13 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Apr 09 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jun 24 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Sep 18 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Dec 03 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 29 2014 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jun 11 2014 (Cross-shore data only) Sep 09 2014 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Oct 07 2014 (Cross-shore data/MHW Breach shoreline) Jan 21 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Mar 19 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) May 16 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Set 28 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jan 21 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 25 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Apr 06 2016 (Cross-shore data only) Apr 11 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jun 16 2016 (Cross-shore data only) Sep 27 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jan 24 2017 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) May 23 2017 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Oct 17 2017 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline)
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 20180517, FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp - Fire Island National Seashore Wilderness Breach Shoreline Data Collected from Fire Island, New York, October 2014 to October 2017: U.S. Geological Survey Data Release doi:10.5066/P9ANYQ8G, U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Henderson, Rachel Hehre, Hapke, Cheryl J., Brenner, Owen T., and Reynolds, B.J., 20150430, Hurricane Sandy Beach Response and Recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline and Beach Profile Data, October 2012 to October 2014: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series DS 931, U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -72.903734
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -72.890156
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 40.726516
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 40.720457
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Calendar_Date: 07-Oct-2014
    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 (18)
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator
      Universal_Transverse_Mercator:
      UTM_Zone_Number: 18
      Transverse_Mercator:
      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 0.6096
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.6096
      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?
    FIIS_Breach_USGS
    This dataset includes vector shorelines that represent an approximation of the MHW shoreline collected from Wilderness Breach. Wilderness Breach is coincident with Old Inlet, which is located in the Otis Pike High Dunes Wilderness area on Fire Island, NY. (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.
    DATE_
    Date assigned to MHW shoreline 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.
    UNCERT
    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 a more detailed description. (Source: USGS)
    ValueDefinition
    10Uncertainty of the shoreline position
    Agency
    Originator Agency of material used to derive shoreline. (Source: USGS)
    ValueDefinition
    USGSThe U.S. Geological survey is responsible for the collection of this data.
    Proxy
    Method used to determine the shoreline. (Source: USGS)
    ValueDefinition
    MHWMean High Water (MHW) captured at low tide.
    Data_Sourc
    Source (type) of data used to generate the shoreline. (Source: USGS)
    ValueDefinition
    DGPS Post Sandy Field Data CollectionSource (type) of data used to generate the shoreline.
    NOTES_
    Notes describing the coverage of each shoreline. (Source: USGS)
    ValueDefinition
    Location of breach shoreline segment.Description of breach shoreline dictating if segment lies on western or eastern flank of the Wilderness Breach.
    Originator
    The person or persons responsible for interpreting the tabular field data to the MHW shoreline. (Source: USGS)
    ValueDefinition
    USGSThe U.S. Geological Survey is responsible for the collection and preperation of this data
    Shape_Leng
    Length of feature, in meters (UTM zone 18N NAD 83), automatically calculated by Esri software in the geodatabase. (Source: Esri)
    Range of values
    Minimum:277.4531
    Maximum:1576.862

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?

Starting in October of 2014, data along the breach located in the Otis Pike National High Dune Wilderness Area were collected to monitor the breach opening. The USGS is continuing to monitor the beaches, dunes and breach to evaluate how much of the sand removed by Hurricane Sandy returns to the beach via natural beach-building processes.

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 T., and Hapke, Cheryl J., Unpublished material, FIIS DGPS shoreline data.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    In order to examine the shoreline dynamics associated with Hurricane Sandy and monitor the continued response and recovery, surveys of continuous alongshore DGPS data were collected in conjunction with cross-shore profiles and surveys of the breach shoreline. Multiple shore-parallel tracklines were collected 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. Starting in October of 2014, data along the breach located in the Otis Pike National High Dune Wilderness Area were collected to monitor the breach opening. The USGS is continuing to monitor the beaches, dunes and breach 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) were converted to vector digital data and edited using Esri ArcMap version 10.5 to publish shoreline data in a GIS environment.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 11-Apr-2018 (process 1 of 5)
    Breach Shoreline from tabular DGPS Data (Oct 2014 - Oct 2017) Continuous alongshore DGPS data were collected along the western and eastern sides of the breach shoreline, at a user approximated MHW line. These data were converted from tabular files to vector shorelines. For each survey date, ASCII point data were imported into ArcMap as polyline shapefiles. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
    Attn: Rachel E. Henderson
    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_Breach_Shorelines_date
    Date: 11-Apr-2018 (process 2 of 5)
    The shoreline file FIIS_Breach_Shorelines_date was coded with attribute fields: FID, DATE_, and UNCERT (Uncertainty). These fields are required for the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS), which can be used to calculate change rates. Additional fields: Agency, Proxy, Data_Sourc, 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 (e.g. MHW, HWL, WDL), Data_Sourc 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: 30-Sep-2016 (process 3 of 5)
    The positional variability of an interpolated MHW (mean high water) shoreline is influenced primarily by tides, winds, waves and beach slope. Similarly, other water level-based proxies (HWL - high water line, LHTS - last high tide swash) have positional variability that is weather and tide dependent. Drawing from data presented in Pajak and Leathermann (2002), a conservative estimate of HWL variability (given tide range and beach slope) of 10 m could be assessed for Fire Island, given the similar tide range (1.3 m) and average beach slopes (4.3-6.7°) at Fire Island compared to values published for the examples at Assateague Island, MD (0.7 m, and 4-6°) and Duck, NC (1.1 m, and 8-10°). For the breach shoreline collected by approximating MHW, under the same influence of tides and slope, similar positional uncertainties as observed for the HWL shoreline are expected. Thus, a conservative estimate of breach shoreline positional uncertainty of 10 m. The repeatability of interpreting the same WDL line (verses additional wrack lines) is estimated by the operator to be 1 m. Uncertainties derived from equipment limitations and post processing of the data is estimated to be 0.01 m and 0.04 m respectively. In total, the shoreline positional uncertainty for the shorelines collected at the Wilderness Breach are the square root of the sum of the squares of the following terms. square root of (10^2+1^2+0.01^2+0.04^2) = 10.05 meters 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: 11-Apr-2018 (process 4 of 5)
    All breach shorelines were appended into one feature class (in a personal geodatabase). ArcToolbox>>Data Management Tools>>General>>Append 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_Breach_Shorelines_date
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • FIIS_Breach_USGS
    Date: 13-Oct-2020 (process 5 of 5)
    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?
    Pajak, M. J., and Leatherman, S., 2002, The High Water Line as Shoreline Indicator: Journal of Coastal Research Vol. 18, No. 2, Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc., Coconut Creek, FL.

    Online Links:

    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: U.S. Geological Survey 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., https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1231/.
    Henderson, Rachel E., Hapke, Cheryl J., Brenner, Owen T., and Reynolds, B.J., 20170414, Hurricane Sandy beach response and recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline, beach profile data, and breach shoreline data: October 2012 to September 2016: U.S. Geological Survey Data Release doi:10.5066/F7G15Z17, U.S. Geological Survey - St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Suggested Citation: Henderson, R.E., Hapke, C.J., Brenner, O.T., and Reynolds, B.J., 2017, Hurricane Sandy beach response and recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline, beach profile data, and breach shoreline data: October 2012 to September 2016: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7G15Z17.

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

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    The breach shoreline data provided here are a compilation of shorelines that were collected using USGS-specific field-collection methods over the course of two years following Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey on October 29, 2012.
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    The positional variability of an interpolated MHW (mean high water) shoreline is influenced primarily by tides, winds, waves and beach slope. Similarly, other water level-based proxies (e.g. HWL - high water line, LHTS - last high tide swash, WDL - wet dry line) have positional variability that is weather and tide dependent. For the breach shoreline collected by approximating MHW, under the same influence of tides and slope, similar positional uncertainties as observed for the HWL shoreline are expected. Thus, a conservative estimate of breach shoreline positional uncertainty of 10 m. The repeatability of interpreting the same MHW line (verses additional wrack lines) is estimated by the operator to be 1 m. Uncertainties derived from equipment limitations and post processing of the data is estimated to be 0.01 m and 0.04 m respectively. In total, the shoreline positional uncertainty for the shorelines collected at the Wilderness Breach are the square root of the sum of the squares of the following terms. square root of (10^2+1^2+0.01^2+0.04^2) = 10.05 meters
  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 Post-Hurricane 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? FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp
  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?

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: Owen T. Brenner
600 4th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL
USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone (voice)
obrenner@usgs.gov
Hours_of_Service: 0800-1600 Eastern Time
Metadata standard:
Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

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