Historical cliff edges from the 1920s-1930s and modern edges from 1998-2002 are compared to calculate erosion rates for the California coast. The U.S. Geological Survey compiled this vector data as part of the National Assessment of Shoreline Change Project. Data are organized into downloadable GIS layers for Northern, Central, and Southern California.
Use Cases
- Modeling coastal erosion risks based on historical and modern cliff edge positions.
- Analyzing regional cliff retreat trends for Northern, Central, and Southern California.
- Creating standardized national shoreline change assessments based on the repeatable methodology.
- Integrating vector cliff edges and basemap layers into a Geographic Information System (GIS).
Strengths
- Cliff edge positions are derived from topographic LIDAR surveys.
- Data provides a standard, repeatable methodology for national-scale updates.
- Vector datasets are organized by region (Northern, Central, Southern California) with accompanying metadata.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
Provenance
- Source
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Collection Method
- Cliff edge change determined by comparing historical cliff edges digitized from maps with modern edges from LIDAR surveys.
- Time Range
- Historical: 1920s-1930s; Modern: 1998-2002
- Geography
- Open-ocean California coast