Historical Shoreline Data for Plum Island, Massachusetts

NOAA's Shoreline Data Rescue Project provides a high-resolution historical shoreline for Plum Island, 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. Attribution follows the C-COAST scheme, influenced by the S-57 standard for hydrographic data.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical shoreline change and erosion rates based on the high-resolution shoreline data.
• Integrate historical coastal features into GIS basemaps for planning and modeling.
• Validate or compare modern shoreline datasets against a historical reference layer.
• Study coastal geomorphology using the attributed shoreline objects from the C-COAST catalog.

Strengths

• Data is described as high-resolution and accurate for GIS use.
• Shoreline maps were produced by the authoritative NOAA National Ocean Service.
• Attribution follows a structured scheme (C-COAST) influenced by an international standard (S-57).

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.
• Available file formats are PDF and HTML, which may not be ideal for direct geospatial analysis.

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 survey.

Time Range

Historical, but specific temporal coverage is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:07:08.535731; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Plum Island, Massachusetts, United States, North America.