Uncertainty table for lidar-derived shorelines used when calculating rates in the Digital Shoreline Analysis System software for the Cape Cod region from Provincetown to the southern end of Monomoy Island, Massachusetts (OuterCapeCod_shorelines_uncertainty.dbf)

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Uncertainty table for lidar-derived shorelines used when calculating rates in the Digital Shoreline Analysis System software for the Cape Cod region from Provincetown to the southern end of Monomoy Island, Massachusetts (OuterCapeCod_shorelines_uncertainty.dbf)
Abstract:
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 in total length) 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 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).
Supplemental_Information:
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.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2013, Uncertainty table for lidar-derived shorelines used when calculating rates in the Digital Shoreline Analysis System software for the Cape Cod region from Provincetown to the southern end of Monomoy Island, Massachusetts (OuterCapeCod_shorelines_uncertainty.dbf): Open-File Report 2012-1183, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Smith, Theresa L., Himmelstoss, Emily A., and Thieler, E. Robert, 2013, Massachusetts Shoreline Change Project: A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the 2013 update: Open-File Report 2012-1183, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.246315
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -69.925831
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.082530
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 41.540240
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Calendar_Date: 2013
    Currentness_Reference:
    publication date
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: tabular digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    OuterCapeCod_shorelines_uncertainty
    uncertainty table (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    OID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
    ID
    This field is case-sensitive and name specific. The field contains a cross-shore lidar profile ID stored as the M-value (measure value) at each vertex in the calibrated shoreline route. This serves as the link between the lidar shoreline and the uncertainty table and must be a unique number at each point. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:4431
    UNCY
    This field heading is case-sensitive and name specific. The field contains the plus/minus horizontal uncertainty (meters) in the lidar shoreline position at each cross-shore beach profile. For details on the components that make up this uncertainty, refer to the Methods section of USGS Open-File report 2010-1118 cross-referenced in the metadata. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    Range of values
    Minimum:0.83
    Maximum:5.16
    Units:meters (UTM zone 19N WGS 84)
    BIAS
    This field heading is case-sensitive and name specific. The field contains a proxy-datum bias value describing the unidirectional horizontal offset (in meters) between the MHW elevation of the lidar data and HWL shoreline positions. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    Range of values
    Minimum:6.7
    Maximum:8.34
    Units:meters (UTM zone 19N WGS 84)
    UNCYB
    This field heading is case-sensitive and name specific. The field contains the uncertainty in the calculated proxy-datum bias value (BIAS) in meters. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
    Range of values
    Minimum:3.46
    Maximum:3.893
    Units:meters (UTM zone 19N WGS 84)

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
    Attn: Theresa Smith
    Contract Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    theresasmith@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

This table includes both measurement and positional errors associated with the 2000 and 2007 lidar shorelines for the Outer Cape Cod region from Provincetown to the southern end of Monomoy Island, Massachusetts, a proxy-datum bias value that corrects for the unidirectional offset between the mean high water (MHW) elevation of the lidar and the high water line (HWL) shorelines, as well as a measurement uncertainty in the total water level.
The table contains a common attribute with the M-values stored for the lidar shoreline data for each region of the the MA_shorelines.shp published within this report. These data are used in conjunction with the shoreline file to calculate rates of shoreline change.
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.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 2011 (process 1 of 8)
    An operational Mean High Water (MHW) shoreline was extracted from each lidar survey (2000 and 2007) using a method similar to the one developed by Stockdon et al. (2002). Shorelines were extracted from cross-shore profiles which consist of bands of lidar data 2 m wide in the alongshore direction and spaced every 40 m along the coast. For each profile, the seaward sloping foreshore points were identified and a linear regression was fit through them. The regression was evaluated at the operational MHW elevation to yield the cross-shore position of the MHW shoreline. If the MHW elevation was obscured by water points, or if a data gap was present at MHW, the linear regression was simply extrapolated to the operational MHW elevation. A lidar positional uncertainty associated with this point was also computed. The horizontal offset between the datum-based lidar MHW shoreline and the proxy-based historical shorelines nearly always acts in one direction and the "bias" value was computed at each profile (Ruggiero and List, 2009). In addition an uncertainty associated with the bias was also computed, which can also be thought of as the uncertainty of the HWL shorelines due to water level fluctuations.
    Repeating this procedure at successive profiles generated a series of X,Y points that contain a lidar positional uncertainty, a bias, and a bias uncertainty value for the 2000 and 2007 survey. The values from 2000 and 2007 are averaged together to obtain a single positional uncertainty, bias and bias uncertainty value at each cross shore profile location.
    Ruggiero, P. and List, J.H., 2009. Improving Accuracy and Statistical Reliability of Shoreline Position and Change Rate Estimates. Journal of Coastal Research: v.25, n.5, pp.1069-1081.
    Stockdon, H.F., Sallenger, A.H., List, J.H., and Holman, R.A., 2002. Estimation of Shoreline Position and Change using Airborne Topographic Lidar Data: Journal of Coastal Research, v.18, n.3, pp.502-513. Person who carried out this activity:
    Amy Farris
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    afarris@usgs.gov
    Date: 2011 (process 2 of 8)
    The series of operational MHW points extracted from the cross-shore lidar profiles were converted to a .dbf file storing the lidar positional uncertainty, the bias correction value, and the uncertainty of the bias correction for each point of the original lidar data. During the rate calculation process DSAS uses linear referencing to retrieve the uncertainty and bias values stored in the associated table.
    For a detailed explanation of the method used to store bias and uncertainty data in a table, please refer to Appendix 2, section 12.3 in the DSAS user guide:
    Himmelstoss, E.A. 2009. "DSAS 4.0 Installation Instructions and User Guide" in: Thieler, E.R., Himmelstoss, E.A., Zichichi, J.L., and Ergul, Ayhan. 2009. Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.0 - An ArcGIS extension for calculating shoreline change: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1278. https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20081278 Person who carried out this activity:
    Emily Himmelstoss
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2262 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    ehimmelstoss@usgs.gov
    Date: 2012 (process 3 of 8)
    The shoreline uncertainty table (.dbf) was imported into a personal geodatabase in ArcCatalog v10 by right-clicking on the geodatabase > Import > Table (single). The uncertainty table was used with the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) v4.3 software to perform rate calculations.
    This process step and all subsequent process steps were performed by the same person - Theresa Smith. Person who carried out this activity:
    Theresa Smith
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Contract Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    theresasmith@usgs.gov
    Date: 2012 (process 4 of 8)
    The shoreline uncertainty table was exported from the personal geodatabase back to a stand-alone dBase file using ArcCatalog v10 by right-clicking on the database file > Export > To dBase file (single) for publication purposes.
    Date: 12-Oct-2017 (process 5 of 8)
    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 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. 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
    Date: 20-Jul-2018 (process 6 of 8)
    USGS Thesaurus keywords added to the keyword section. 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
    Date: 18-Nov-2019 (process 7 of 8)
    Crossref DOI link was added as the first link in the metadata. 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
    Date: 08-Sep-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., Smith, T.L., Knisel, Julia, and Sampson, D.W., 2013, Massachusetts Shoreline Change Mapping and Analysis Project, 2013 Update: Open-File Report 2012-1189, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Thieler, E.R., Himmelstoss, E.A., Zichichi, J.L., and Ergul, A., 2009, Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.0: an ArcGIS extension for calculating shoreline change: Open-File Report 2008-1278, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: Current version is 4.3
    Thieler, E. Robert, O'Connell, James F., and Schupp, Courtney A., 20010904, The Massachusetts Shoreline Change Project: 1800s to 1994 Technical Report: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: Administrative Report
    Himmelstoss, Emily, Kratzmann, Meredith, Hapke, Cheryl, and Thieler, E. Robert, 2010, 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, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Hapke, Cheryl, Himmelstoss, Emily, Kratzmann, Meredith, List, Jeffrey, and Thieler, E. Robert, 2010, National Assessment of Shoreline Change: Historical Shoreline Change along the New England and Mid-Atlantic Coasts: Open-File Report 2010-1118, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Coastal Services Center (CSC), Unknown, 1996-2000 NOAA/USGS/NASA Airborne LiDAR Assessment of Coastal Erosion (ALACE) Project for the U.S. Coastline: NOAA's Ocean Service, Coastal Services Center (CSC), Charleston, SC.

    Other_Citation_Details: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/ldart
    JALBTCX (Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of eXpertise), and Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Coastal Services Center (CSC), 20110621, 2007 US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Topo/Bathy Lidar: Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island: NOAA's Ocean Service, Coastal Services Center (CSC), Charleston, SC.

    Other_Citation_Details: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/ldart

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

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    The attributes in this table record positional and measurement uncertainties and datum offsets calculated during the process of extracting an operational mean high water shoreline from the lidar data as described in the process steps. The field names are based on the requirements for use within the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software (USGS Open-File Report 2008-1278).
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    The average lidar shoreline positional uncertainty for the 2000 and 2007 data is plus or minus 1.27 meters. Please visit the 'Estimation of Shoreline Position Uncertainty' section in the corresponding USGS Open-File Report associated with this data, "Massachusetts Shoreline Change Mapping and Analysis Project, 2013 Update" (https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1189) for a complete explanation of the measurement uncertainties associated with these shorelines.
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    The table only contains data where a mean high water shoreline point could be extracted from the lidar.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Each row contains data associated with an individual vertex point along the lidar shoreline in the Outer Cape Cod region of the MA_shorelines.shp.

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:
These data were automatically generated using the DSAS (version 4.3) software application and should only be used for purposes explicitly stated by the originating organization. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management as the originators of this dataset.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? Downloadable data.
  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 dBase file contains lidar positional and measurement uncertainties, proxy-datum bias offset values, and total water level uncertainties used when calculating rates in the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software in format dBase (version IV) .dbf file format storing structured attribute data
      Network links: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1183/data/OuterCapeCod/OuterCapeCod_shorelines_uncertainty.zip
    • Cost to order the data: None

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    These data are available in dBase file format. The user must have software capable of reading or importing the dBase formatted data file.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 16-Nov-2021
Metadata author:
Theresa Smith
U.S. Geological Survey
Contract Geologist
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, MA
USA

508-548-8700 (voice)
508-457-2310 (FAX)
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
Contact_Instructions:
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.
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/whcmsc/open_file_report/ofr2012-1183/OuterCapeCod_shorelines_uncertainty.dbf.xml.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.50 on Tue Nov 16 10:06:50 2021