National Coastal Change Assessment: Historic and Projected Coastline Erosion Rates

The National Coastal Change Assessment establishes historic coastal change by comparing georectified coastline positions from 1892-1905 maps to 1970s and current positions. It projects future coastline positions using historic erosion rates and a Coastal Erosion Susceptibility Model. The dataset is produced by NatureScot and aims to inform strategic planning for shoreline management and flood risk.

Use Cases

• Modeling historic coastal erosion and accretion rates based on multi-temporal coastline positions.
• Projecting future coastline positions based on past rates and a susceptibility model.
• Identifying key assets at risk from coastal erosion by combining erosion rates with socioeconomic datasets.
• Informing strategic planning documents like Shoreline Management Plans and Flood Risk Management Plans.

Strengths

• Integrates data from three distinct time periods: 1892-1905, 1970s, and current.
• Coastal Erosion Susceptibility Model uses a range of ranked data inputs, including elevation and wave exposure.
• Aims to provide an objective evidence base for national and regional marine planning.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NatureScot (via Government Digital Service on eu_open_data)

Collection Method

Coastline extraction from historical maps and comparison with LiDAR datasets, combined with a GIS-based susceptibility model.

Time Range

1892-1905 to present, with future projections.

Freshness

unknown

Geography

National coastline of Scotland