NOAA Shoreline Data Rescue: Historical Shorelines of Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island, NC

NOAA National Ocean Service automated high-resolution historical shoreline data for Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island, North Carolina. The data are derived from maps based on office interpretation of imagery and field surveys, attributed using the NGS-developed C-COAST scheme. This resource is a member of the NOAA InPort catalog item 39808.

Use Cases

• Analyze coastal erosion or accretion rates based on historical shoreline positions.
• Create GIS data layers for coastal zone management based on high-resolution shoreline vectors.
• Validate or compare modern shoreline datasets against historical interpretations.
• Study the influence of the C-COAST attribution scheme on data translation to S-57 standards.

Strengths

• Data is described as high-resolution and accurate for GIS use.
• Shoreline maps were produced by NOAA National Ocean Service and its predecessor agencies.
• Attribution uses the structured NGS C-COAST scheme, influenced by IHO S-57 standards.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data formats are PDF and HTML, which may require extraction for direct geospatial use.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Historical, but specific temporal coverage is not stated.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:57:02.597685; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island, North Carolina, USA.