U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
2013
Shorelines used to calculate shoreline change statistics Boston coastal region from Carson Beach in South Boston to Weymouth River, including the Boston Harbor Islands (Boston_shorelines.shp)
vector digital data
Open-File Report
2012-1183
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA
U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20121183
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1183/
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1183/data/Boston/Boston_shorelines.zip
Theresa L. Smith
Emily A. Himmelstoss
E. Robert Thieler
2013
Massachusetts Shoreline Change Project: A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the 2012 update
vector digital data
Open-File Report
2012-1183
Reston, VA
U.S. Geological Survey
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1183/
Due to continued coastal population growth and increased threats of erosion, current data on trends and rates of shoreline movement are required to inform shoreline and floodplain management. The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management launched the Shoreline Change Project in 1989 to identify erosion-prone areas of the coast. In 2001, a 1994 shoreline was added to calculate both long- and short-term shoreline change rates at 40-meter intervals along ocean-facing sections of the Massachusetts coast.
The Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, has compiled reliable historical shoreline data along open-facing sections of the Massachusetts coast under the Massachusetts Shoreline Change Mapping and Analysis Project 2013 Update. Two oceanfront shorelines for Massachusetts (approximately 1,800 km) were (1) delineated using 2008/09 color aerial orthoimagery, and (2) extracted from topographic LIDAR datasets (2007) obtained from NOAA's Ocean Service, Coastal Services Center. The new shorelines were integrated with existing Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (MA CZM) and USGS historical shoreline data in order to compute long- and short-term rates using the latest version of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS).
This dataset includes shorelines from 161 years ranging from 1847 to 2008 within the Boston coastal region from Carson Beach in South Boston to Weymouth River, including the Boston Harbor Islands. Shorelines were compiled from T-sheets and air-photos obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (MA CZM). Historical shoreline positions serve as easily understood features that can be used to describe the movement of beaches through time. These data are used to calculate rates of shoreline change for the MA CZM Shoreline Change Project. Rates of long-term and short-term shoreline change were generated in a GIS using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.3. DSAS uses a measurement baseline method to calculate rate-of-change statistics. Transects are cast from the reference baseline to intersect each shoreline, establishing measurement points used to calculate shoreline change rates. For publication purposes, the shoreline data for Massachusetts were organized by region in order match the extent of previously published uncertainty files used in shoreline change calculations.
Cross-referenced citations are applicable to the dataset as a whole. Additional citations are located within individual process steps that pertain specifically to the method described in that step.
2013
publication date
None planned
-71.052339
-70.874435
42.343507
42.247202
USGS Metadata Identifier
USGS:58dff4a8-0160-451b-ae1f-860d20a5d4c9
None
WHCMSC
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Coastal Services Center
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
USACE
National Assessment of Shoreline Change Project
Linear Regression Rate
Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management
MA CZM
Massachusetts Shoreline Change Project
DSAS
Endpoint Rate
CMGP
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
CSC
Shoreline Change Rate
USGS
Digital Shoreline Analysis System
NOAA
U.S. Geological Survey
Coastal and Marine Geology Program
ISO 19115 Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
oceans
environment
USGS Thesaurus
geospatial datasets
coastal processes
None
United States
Atlantic Coast
New England
Massachusetts
Boston
Boston Harbor
South Boston
Weymouth River
None
Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant Program as the originators of this dataset.
U.S. Geological Survey
Theresa Smith
Contract Geologist
mailing and physical address
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
USA
508-548-8700
508-457-2310
theresasmith@usgs.gov
Microsoft Windows Vista Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcCatalog 9.3.1.1850
E.R. Thieler
T.L. Smith
2013
Massachusetts Shoreline Change Mapping and Analysis Project, 2012 Update
vector digital data
Open-File Report
2012-1189
Reston, VA
U.S. Geological Survey
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1189/
E.R. Thieler
E.A. Himmelstoss
J.L. Zichichi
A. Ergul
2009
Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.0: an ArcGIS extension for calculating shoreline change
Open-File Report
2008-1278
Reston, VA
U.S. Geological Survey
Current version is 4.3
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20081278
James F. O'Connell
Courtney A. Schupp
E. Robert Thieler
2001
The Massachusetts Shoreline Change Project: 1800s to 1994 Technical Report
Administrative Report
1
Reston, VA
U.S. Geological Survey
http://www.mass.gov/czm/hazards/pdf/sc_technical_report.pdf
http://www.mass.gov/czm/hazards/shoreline_change/shorelinechangeproject.htm
Emily A. Himmelstoss
Meredith G. Kratzmann
Cheryl J. Hapke
E. Robert Thieler
Jeffrey List
20110119
The National Assessment of Shoreline Change: A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the New England and Mid-Atlantic Coasts
Open-File Report
2010-1119
Reston, VA
U.S. Geological Survey
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1119/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS)
Unknown
Scanned National Ocean Service (NOS) Coastal Survey Maps (also known as Topographic Survey sheets, or T-sheets)
Washington, D.C.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA shoreline manuscripts (T-sheets)
The data provided here are a compilation of shorelines from multiple sources, spanning 161 years. The attributes are based on the requirements of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software and have gone through a series of quality assurance procedures.
Adjacent shoreline segments do not overlap and are not necessarily continuous. Shorelines were quality checked for accuracy. Any slight offsets between adjacent segments due to georeferencing and digitizing error are taken into account in the uncertainty calculations included in the corresponding report (U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2012-1189). These data contain some short line segments (less than 30 meters) that were part of how the data were originally compiled and are in fact continuous with other segments of a given shoreline.
This shoreline file is complete and contains all shoreline segments used to calculate shoreline change rates along sections of the Boston coastal region where shoreline position data were available. These data adequately represented the shoreline position at the time of the survey. Remaining gaps in these data, if applicable, are a consequence of non-existing data or existing data that did not meet quality assurance standards.
Shoreline data have been acquired from 1847 to 2008, the horizontal accuracy of which varies with respect to data source from which the shorelines were digitized and the time period. Shorelines prior to 1938 have an estimated positional uncertainty of plus or minus 11.6 meters. Air photo-derived shorelines from 1969-1994 have an estimated positional uncertainty of plus or minus 6.7 meters. Shorelines derived from 15cm 2008 orthophotos have an estimated positional uncertainty of plus or minus 4.4 meters. Shorelines derived from 30cm 2008 orthophotos have an estimated positional uncertainty of plus or minus 4.9 meters. Please visit the Estimation of Shoreline Position Uncertainty section in the corresponding USGS Open-File Report (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1189/) for a complete explanation of the measurement uncertainties associated with these shorelines.
Applied Geographics Inc.
Photo Science, Inc. (renamed EarthData International)
19950730
Unknown
Statistical Analysis of Shoreline Change in Massachusetts
1
map
100 Franklin Street, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02110
Applied Geographics Inc.
http://www.appgeo.com/homepage/header_source/proj_fr.html
CD-ROM
19950508
19950508
Statistical Analysis of Shoreline Change in Massachusetts
Arc coverage of Massachusetts shorelines 1844-1978
National Ocean Services
Photo Science, Inc. (renamed EarthData International)
19970508
unknown
Massachusetts Coastal Orthophotographs
1
map
45 West Watkins Mill Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Photo Science, Inc.
Not Available
CD-ROM
19940901
Unknown
Massachusetts Coastal Orthophotographs
Full-color, digital orthophotographs were provided by MCZM on CD-ROM. The photos have a resolution of 1 meter per pixel. The aerial photography was flown in September/October 94 by the National Ocean Service (NOS photographic missions 94061, 94062, 94063, and 94064) at a nominal scale of 1:48,000. The photographs were scanned and orthorectified by EarthData International (Gaithersburg, MD) using camera station information supplied to EarthData by NOS. The CD-ROMs supplied by MCZM contained mosaicked orthophotos at 1-meter/pixel resolution, with boundaries corresponding to the existing MCZM shoreline change maps, as well as ArcInfo TIF World File (TFW) georeferencing information.
Applied Coastal Research and Engineering, Inc.
2006
South Shore of Massachusetts, 2001 High-Water Shoreline
vector digital data
Mashpee, MA
Applied Coastal research and Engineering, Inc.
Applied Coastal Research and Engineering, Inc.
2006
Unknown
South Shore Historical Shoreline Change Analysis: Hull to the Cape Cod Canal, MA
5,000
hardcopyPhoto
2006
publication date
South Shore of Massachusetts, 2001 High-Water Shoreline
Digital orthophotography flown by Keystone Aerial Surveys Inc. served as the base maps from which a high-water shoreline was extracted using heads-up digitizing procedures in ArcMap for the 2001 South Shore dataset.
Shoreline data were sought in an effort to compile as many quality shorelines as possible for the region. Digital shorelines were acquired from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Massachusetts office of Coastal Zone Management (MA CZM). Historic shoreline positions obtained from USGS were projected in Esri's ArcToolbox (v.9.3)>Data Management Tools>Projections and Transformations>Feature>Project. Parameters: input projection = Geographic Coordinate System (WGS 1984); output projection = State Plane Massachusetts Mainland FIPS 2001 (NAD83); transformation = NAD_1983_To_WGS_1984_5.
All MA CZM shoreline data were appended to the USGS GreaterBoston_shorelines shapefile in ArcToolbox >Data Management Tools>General>Append and was renamed Boston_shorelines. The appended shoreline dataset was coded with the following attribute fields: ID, Route ID, Source, Date, Uncertainty (Uncy), Shape Length (Shape_Leng), Year, and Original ID.
This process step and all subsequent process steps were performed by the same person - Theresa Smith.
2011
Theresa Smith
U.S. Geological Survey
Contract Geologist
mailing and physical address
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
USA
508-548-8700
508-457-2310
theresasmith@usgs.gov
Redundant shorelines were eliminated from the appended dataset in an ArcMap v9.3 by selecting the area and comparing the year. Edits were checked for overlapping data and unnecessary gaps between adjacent shorelines. No edgematching between adjacent shorelines was attempted.
2011
Vector high water line (HWL) 2008 shorelines were digitized from 15 cm and 30 cm resolution, 4-band (RGB natural and IR) color orthophotographs using the sketch tool in ArcEditor/ArcMap v9.3. The shorelines were digitized at a scale of 1:300 for the 15 cm and 1:500 for the 30 cm orthophotos. The shorelines were delineated using the following indicators as proxies for the high water line, after Thieler and others (2001) and Boak and Turner (2005): 1) the previous high tide line seaward of the storm debris wrack line, as indicated by the tonal changes between wet and dry beach material (i.e., sand, gravel, cobble), a seaweed or debris line or a combination of both; 2) the high-tide wrack line, created when the high tide deposits seaweed and debris on the upper beach; 3) the vegetation change between Spartina patens in the upper marsh and Spartina alterniflora in the lower marsh, or the outer limits of emergent marsh vegetation (when vegetation types were not discernible); 4) the algal line on rocky outcrops, indicated by the tonal change between wet surfaces that host algae and dry surfaces with no algae; 5) the maximum wave runup limit at or near high tide indicated by the interface between the land and water; and 6) the interface between vertical seawalls/bulkheads and open water.
Boak, E.H., and Turner, I.L., 2005, Shoreline definition and detection: a review: Journal of Coastal Research, v. 21, n. 4, p. 688703.
Thieler, E.R., J.F. OConnell, and C.A. Schupp, 2001, The Massachusetts Shoreline Change Project: 1800s to 1994: USGS Administrative Report to the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Boston, MA, 26 p. + Appendices.
2011
The 2008 shorelines were appended to the Boston_Shorelines shapefile in ArcToolbox >Data Management Tools>General>Append to produce a single shoreline file for the Boston region.
2011
The appended shorelines file was imported into a personal geodatabase in ArcCatalog v9.3 by right-clicking on the geodatabase > Import feature class. A topology was created for the shorelines feature class in ArcCatalog v9.3 by right clicking the feature dataset > new > topology and selecting the rule must not overlap. In ArcMap v9.3, the topology was verified and edited so that there were no overlapping shorelines of the same year using standard editing and topology tools.
2011
The entire geodatabase was upgraded to v.10 by right-clicking on the geodatabase and choosing "Properties" from the pop-up window in ArcCatalog v.10. The "Upgrade Geodatabase" button was clicked at the bottom of the General tab in the Database Properties window, for use with the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) v4.3 software to perform rate calculations.
2012
The shoreline feature class was exported from the personal geodatabase back to a shapefile in ArcCatalog v.10 by right-clicking on the shoreline file > Export > To Shapefile (single) for publication purposes.
2012
The exported shorelines shapefile was projected in Esri's ArcToolbox (v.10) > Data Management Tools > Projections and Transformations > Feature > Project. Parameters: input projection - NAD_1983_StatePlane_Massachusetts_Mainland_FIPS_2001; output projection - geographic coordinates (NAD83); transformation - none.
2012
Edits to the metadata were made to fix any errors that MP v 2.9.36 flagged. This is necessary to enable the metadata to be successfully harvested for various data catalogs. In some cases, this meant adding text "Information unavailable" or "Information unavailable from original metadata" for those required fields that were left blank. Other minor edits were probably performed (title, publisher, publication place, etc.). Attempted to modify http to https where appropriate. Added a landing page link as the first link in the identification section. Fixed online link to DSAS cross-reference. The distribution format name was modified in an attempt to be more consistent with other metadata files of the same data format. The metadata date (but not the metadata creator) was edited to reflect the date of these changes. The metadata available from a harvester may supersede metadata bundled within a download file. Compare the metadata dates to determine which metadata file is most recent.
20171010
U.S. Geological Survey
VeeAnn A. Cross
Marine Geologist
Mailing and Physical
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2251
508-457-2310
vatnipp@usgs.gov
USGS Thesaurus keywords added to the keyword section.
20180720
U.S. Geological Survey
VeeAnn A. Cross
Marine Geologist
Mailing and Physical
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2251
508-457-2310
vatnipp@usgs.gov
Crossref DOI link was added as the first link in the metadata.
20191118
U.S. Geological Survey
VeeAnn A. Cross
Marine Geologist
Mailing and Physical
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2251
508-457-2310
vatnipp@usgs.gov
Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword.
20200908
U.S. Geological Survey
VeeAnn A. Cross
Marine Geologist
Mailing and Physical
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
508-548-8700 x2251
508-457-2310
vatnipp@usgs.gov
Vector
0.000001
0.000001
Decimal degrees
D North American 1983
GRS 1980
6378137.0
298.257222101
Boston_shorelines
Vector shorelines
U.S. Geological Survey
FID
Internal feature number.
Esri
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Shape
Feature geometry.
Esri
Coordinates defining the features
Source
Agency that provided shoreline feature or the data source used (e.g. T-sheet) to digitize shoreline feature.
USGS
Character string of length 25
Date_
Date of shoreline position; date of survey as indicated on source material. A default date of 07/01 was assigned to shorelines where only the year was known (month and day unknown). Using July, the mid-point month of the calendar year, minimizes the potential offset to the actual shoreline date by a maximum of six months.
USGS
Character string of length 10
Uncy
Estimate of shoreline position uncertainty. Actual shoreline position is within the range of this value (plus or minus, meters). The method used to determine this uncertainty is described in the accompanying written report (Open-File Report 2012-1189) under the section titled "Estimation of Shoreline Position Uncertainty" (https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1189). The historic shoreline uncertainty values contain all of the measurement errors listed in Table 2 of OFR 2012-1189. The HWL uncertainty listed in Table 2 was averaged for the entire state (4.3).
U.S. Geological Survey
0
Zeros are considered "no data" if a shoreline uncertainty table is detected (otherwise the default uncertainty value set by user in DSAS default parameters is used), additional positional uncertainty information associated with the lidar data is pulled from the shoreline_uncertainty.dbf table and is referenced in the process steps.
U.S. Geological Survey
Year_
Four digit year of shoreline
U.S. Geological Survey
1847
2008
Default_D
Differentiates between shorelines that have known month and day attributes and those that use the default value of 07/01 when only the year is known.
U.S. Geological Survey
0
Shoreline month and day are known.
U.S. Geological Survey
1
Shoreline month and day are unknown and default value of 07/01 was used.
U.S. Geological Survey
SHAPE_Leng
Length of feature/transect in meter units (State Plane Massachusetts Mainland FIPS 2001, NAD83)
U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center
0.004687
7385.135378
U.S. Geological Survey
Theresa Smith
Contractor
mailing and physical address
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
USA
508-548-8700
508-457-2310
Downloadable data.
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.
Shapefile
ArcGIS 10
Esri polyline shapefile
This WinZip (version 16.5) file contains a shapefile of compiled shorelines for the Boston region of Massachusetts.
Use WinZip or pkUnzip
1
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1183/data/Boston/Boston_shorelines.zip
Data may be downloaded via the World Wide Web (WWW).
None
This zip file contains data available in Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) polyline shapefile format. The user must have ArcGIS or ArcView 3.0 or greater software to read and process the data file. In lieu of ArcView or ArcGIS, the user may utilize another GIS application package capable of importing the data. A free data viewer, ArcExplorer, capable of displaying the data is available from Esri at www.esri.com.
20211116
Theresa Smith
U.S. Geological Survey
Contract Geologist
mailing and physical address
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole
MA
02543-1598
USA
508-548-8700
508-457-2310
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
The metadata contact email address is a generic address in the event the metadata contact is no longer with the USGS or the email is otherwise invalid.
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
local time