Lake Michigan Historical Shoreline Data from NOAA Coastal Maps

NOAA National Ocean Service and its predecessor agencies produced high-resolution historical shoreline maps for Lake Michigan. The data were automated for GIS use and attributed using the C-COAST scheme, influenced by the S-57 standard for hydrographic data. This resource is a member of the NOAA InPort catalog item 39808.

Use Cases

• Train models for shoreline change detection based on historical map interpretations.
• Create baseline GIS layers for coastal planning based on the high-resolution shoreline data.
• Study the evolution of coastal features using the attributed historical source data.

Strengths

• Data is derived from shoreline maps produced by the authoritative NOAA National Ocean Service.
• Shoreline is processed to be high-resolution and suitable for GIS applications.
• Attribution uses the C-COAST scheme, designed for compatibility with hydrographic standards.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Lake Michigan focus.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

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 surveys.

Time Range

Historical (specific range not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 21:15:51.766226; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Lake Michigan, North America.