NOAA Shoreline Data Rescue Project: Boston, Massachusetts, 1938

A high-resolution historical shoreline GIS data layer for Boston, Massachusetts, derived from 1938 maps produced by the NOAA National Ocean Service and its predecessor agencies. The data were automated for accuracy and use the NGS C-COAST attribution scheme, influenced by the International Hydrographic Organization's S-57 standard. This resource is a member of a larger NOAA data collection (InPort item 39808).

Use Cases

• Analyze historical coastal erosion or accretion based on the high-resolution 1938 shoreline.
• Create baseline GIS layers for coastal management planning based on the automated, accurate shoreline data.
• Study land-use change in coastal zones by comparing this historical layer with modern datasets.
• Translate shoreline data into S-57 compliant formats for hydrographic applications based on the C-COAST attribution scheme.

Strengths

• Data is derived from official NOAA National Ocean Service shoreline maps, providing an authoritative source.
• The high-resolution historical shoreline is suitable for use as a GIS data layer.
• Attribution uses the structured NGS C-COAST scheme, influenced by international standards.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary file formats are PDF and HTML, which may require conversion for direct GIS use.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce.

Collection Method

Automated from shoreline maps produced by NOAA NOS based on office interpretation of imagery and/or field surveys.

Time Range

1938 (inferred from dataset identifier MA1938A).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:35:29.419301; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Boston, Massachusetts, USA.