Shorelines used to calculate shoreline change statistics from the South Cape Cod coastal region of Massachusetts from Stage Harbor Light in Chatham to Nobska Point in Woods Hole (SouthCapeCod_shorelines.shp)

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 shoreline data were merged into a single file for the region in ArcToolbox > Data Management Tools > General > Merge and named SouthCapeCod_shorelines.shp. The merged 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.

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.

A vector high water line (HWL) shoreline from 2009 was digitized from 30 cm resolution, 4-band (RGB natural and IR) color orthophotographs using the sketch tool in ArcEditor/ArcMap v9.3. The shoreline was digitized at a scale of 1:500. The shoreline was 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.

The 2009 shoreline was appended to the SouthCapeCod_shorelines shapefile in ArcToolbox >Data Management Tools>General>Append to produce a single shoreline file.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword.