Historical Shoreline Data for Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers

NOAA National Ocean Service provides a high-resolution historical shoreline for California's Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, automated for GIS use. These data are derived from shoreline maps based on office interpretation of imagery and/or field surveys. The attribution follows the C-COAST scheme, influenced by the International Hydrographic Organization's S-57 standard.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical riverbank erosion or accretion based on high-resolution shoreline data
• Model floodplain changes over time based on historical shoreline positions
• Create baseline geospatial layers for environmental impact assessments based on NOAA-derived maps
• Validate or calibrate hydrological models using authoritative historical shoreline geometry

Strengths

• Data is described as 'high-resolution' and 'accurate', suitable for GIS layers
• Source is authoritative, produced by NOAA National Ocean Service and its predecessor agencies
• Attribution follows 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
• Data formats are limited to PDF and HTML, which may restrict direct geospatial analysis

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Derived from shoreline maps produced by NOAA National Ocean Service based on office interpretation of imagery and/or field surveys.

Time Range

Historical (specific range not provided)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:15:42.690048; freshness should be verified

Geography

Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, California, North America