Historical Shoreline of Elizabeth Islands, Massachusetts, from NOAA Maps

NOAA's Shoreline Data Rescue Project provides a high-resolution historical shoreline for the Elizabeth Islands, Massachusetts, suitable as a GIS data layer. The data were automated from shoreline maps produced by the 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 S-57 standard for hydrographic data.

Use Cases

• Analyze coastal erosion or accretion over time based on the high-resolution historical shoreline.
• Integrate historical shoreline data into GIS models for coastal zone management.
• Validate or compare modern shoreline datasets against the historical baseline.
• Study coastal geomorphology changes using the attributed shoreline features.

Strengths

• Data are derived from authoritative NOAA National Ocean Service shoreline maps.
• Shoreline is described as high-resolution and accurate for GIS use.
• Attribution uses a structured scheme (C-COAST) influenced by an international hydrographic standard.

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 extraction or conversion for analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Historical (specific range not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:11:44.446251; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Elizabeth Islands, Massachusetts, USA.