Shoreline Data Rescue Project: Historical Delaware River Shoreline GIS Data

NOAA's Shoreline Data Rescue Project provides a high-resolution historical shoreline of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania as a GIS data layer. The data were automated from shoreline maps produced by NOAA National Ocean Service and its predecessors, based on imagery interpretation and field surveys. The attribution follows the NGS-developed C-COAST scheme, influenced by the IHO S-57 standard for translation.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical shoreline change over time based on the high-resolution historical shoreline data.
• Create GIS basemaps for coastal planning based on the automated, accurate geographic information system data layer.
• Translate shoreline data into S-57 hydrographic formats based on the C-COAST attribution scheme influenced by IHO standards.
• Conduct coastal erosion or accretion studies based on the interpreted imagery and field survey-derived shoreline.

Strengths

• Data were automated to provide an accurate high-resolution historical shoreline.
• Shoreline maps were produced by the NOAA National Ocean Service, a federal agency.
• Attribution follows the NGS-developed C-COAST scheme for consistency.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data are provided in PDF and HTML formats, which are not typical for direct GIS analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Automated from shoreline maps based on office interpretation of imagery and/or field survey.

Time Range

Historical (specific range not provided)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:03:03.007771; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Delaware River, Pennsylvania