Abstract:
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains shoreline positions for the United States coasts from both older sources, such as aerial photographs or topographic surveys, and contemporary sources, such as lidar-point clouds and digital elevation models. These shorelines are compiled and analyzed in the USGS Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS), version 5.1 software to calculate rates of change. Keeping a record of historical shoreline positions is an effective method to monitor change over time, enabling scientists to identify areas most susceptible to erosion or accretion. These data can help coastal managers understand which areas of the coast are vulnerable to change. This data release, and other associated products, represent an expansion of the USGS national-scale shoreline database to include Puerto Rico and its islands, Vieques and Culebra. The USGS, in cooperation with the Coastal Research and Planning Institute of Puerto Rico—part of the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus—has derived and compiled a database of historical shoreline positions using a variety of methods. These historical shoreline data are then used to measure the rate of shoreline change over time. Rate calculations are computed within a geographic information system (GIS) using the DSAS version 5.1 software. Starting from a user defined baseline, measurement transects are created by DSAS that intersect the shoreline vectors. The resulting intersections provide the location and time information necessary to calculate rates of shoreline change. The overall project contains shorelines, baselines, shoreline change rates (long-term and short-term), and shoreline intersects (long-term and short-term), for Puerto Rico, and the adjacent islands of Vieques and Culebra.
Purpose:
This dataset includes shorelines for ~120 years ranging from 1901 to 2018 for the coastal region of Puerto Rico, including the islands of Vieques and Culebra. Historical shorelines were compiled from a variety of sources including T-sheets, orthophotos, aerial photos, and lidar data.
Supplemental_Information:
Version 2.0 contains all shorelines released in the first version with the addition of a lidar shoreline from 2014/2015 (Heslin and others, 2021).
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO 19115 Topic Category
Theme_Keyword: oceans
Theme_Keyword: geoscientificInformation
Theme_Keyword: environment
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: None
Theme_Keyword: Shorelines
Theme_Keyword: Historical Shorelines
Theme_Keyword: Shoreline intersects
Theme_Keyword: Transect
Theme_Keyword: Digital Shoreline Analysis System
Theme_Keyword: DSAS
Theme_Keyword: U.S. Geological Survey
Theme_Keyword: USGS
Theme_Keyword: Coastal and Marine Geology Program
Theme_Keyword: CMGP
Theme_Keyword: Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Theme_Keyword: WHCMSC
Theme_Keyword: Puerto Rico Shoreline Change
Theme_Keyword: University of Puerto Rico
Theme_Keyword: University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Planning
Theme_Keyword: Coastal Research and Planning Institute of Puerto Rico
Theme_Keyword: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Theme_Keyword: NOAA
Theme_Keyword: National Geodetic Survey
Theme_Keyword: NGS
Theme_Keyword: Puerto Rico Departamento de Carreteras
Theme_Keyword: PRDC
Theme_Keyword: Puerto Rico Departamento de Recursos Naturales
Theme_Keyword: PRDRN
Theme_Keyword: US Army Corps of Engineers
Theme_Keyword: USACE
Theme_Keyword: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Theme_Keyword: FEMA
Theme_Keyword: U.S. Department of Agriculture - Soil Conservation Service
Theme_Keyword: USDA-SCS
Theme_Keyword: National Ocean Service
Theme_Keyword: NOS
Theme_Keyword: Mean High Water
Theme_Keyword: MHW
Theme_Keyword: Wet Dry Line
Theme_Keyword: WDL
Theme_Keyword: High Water Line
Theme_Keyword: HWL
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: USGS Thesaurus
Theme_Keyword: geospatial datasets
Theme_Keyword: coastal processes
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: USGS Metadata Identifier
Theme_Keyword: USGS:6149f75fd34e0df5fb96fbe9
Place:
Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None
Place_Keyword: Atlantic Coast
Place_Keyword: United States
Place_Keyword: Caribbean
Place_Keyword: Puerto Rico
Place_Keyword: Vieques
Place_Keyword: Culebra
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. These data are not to be used for navigation.