The 8 km of shoreline from Punta Higüero to Punta Cadena in Rincón, Puerto Rico is experiencing long-term coastal erosion. This study documents historical shoreline changes at Rincón for the period 1936-2006. Thirteen historical shoreline positions were compiled from existing data, new orthophotography, and GPS field surveys. Shoreline vectors represent the high water line at the time of the survey.
This dataset is a subset of the resulting output file from the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) ArcGIS extension. Transects were cast at 50 meter spacing from Punta Higuero to Punta Cadena. The attribute table associated with this file was populated with values by the DSAS software and reports the long-term rate of change statistic based on the distances between shoreline intersections along each transect.
publication date
Public domain data are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) must be referenced as the originator of the dataset in any future products or research derived from these data.
384 Woods Hole Road
Attribute accuracy was tested by visual inspection.
No additional checks for topological consistency were performed on the data.
These data are a subset of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) output transect file. The weighted linear regression (WLR) rate and supplemental statistics have been used to quantify long-term shoreline change.
Transects were generated with a spacing of 50m and saved to a separate feature class using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). The transect-shoreline intersection points were used to compute the statistics that are reported in the newly created transect attribute table. Long-term rates of shoreline change, in units of m/yr, were calculated at each transect using weighted linear regression applied to all shoreline positions from the earliest (1936) to the most recent (2006). Weighted Linear Regression (WLR) was selected because it is a statistically robust quantitative method resulting in a best-fit line that places greater emphasis on data points with a smaller amount of uncertainty. Supplemental statistics for the long-term rates are also reported in units of m/yr and represent a 95% confidence interval for the slope of the regression line. This means with 95% statistical confidence that the true rate of shoreline change falls within the range defined by the reported value plus or minus the error value. The variability around the trend reflects both measurement and sampling errors.
384 Woods Hole Road
Data were projected from UTM zone 19 N to geographic. Tool: "ArcGIS > ArcToolbox > Toolboxes > Data Management Tools > Project". Command issued: GEOGCS['GCS_North_American_1983',DATUM['D_North_American_1983',SPHEROID['GRS_1980',6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM['Greenwich',0.0],UNIT['Degree',0.0174532925199433]] NAD_1983_To_WGS_1984_1
384 Woods Hole Road
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Baseline segment from which the transect is generated.
U.S. Geological Survey
Transect feature number in sequential order alongshore.
U.S. Geological Survey
X starting position of the transect in UTM meters.
U.S. Geological Survey
Y starting position of the transect in UTM meters.
U.S. Geological Survey
X ending position of the transect in UTM meters.
U.S. Geological Survey
Y ending position of the transect in UTM meters.
U.S. Geological Survey
The transect's horizontal angular distance from north.
U.S. Geological Survey
Sequential list of shoreline dates that the transect intersects.
U.S. Geological Survey
Number of shoreline intersections in the rate calculation.
U.S. Geological Survey
Weighted Linear Regression
U.S. Geological Survey
Correlation coefficient (r^2) for weighted linear regression
U.S. Geological Survey
Standard error of the estimate for weighted linear regression.
U.S. Geological Survey
Standard error of the slope at a 95% confidence interval for weighted linear regression
U.S. Geological Survey
384 Woods Hole Road
Although these data have been used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), no warranty expressed or implied is made by the U.S. Geological Survey as to the accuracy of the data. 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.
ESRI Polyline Shapefile
The DBF file contains the attribute data in dBASE format. The PRJ file contains the coordinate system information. The SBN and SBX files contain the spatial index of the geospatial data. The SHP file contains the geospatial data. The SHX file contains the index of the geospatial data. The XML file contains the metadata describing the data set.
384 Woods Hole Road