Northern Ireland Historical Shoreline Change Analysis with Multiple Rate Statistics

Ulster University and OpenDataNI provide a historical shoreline analysis for the entire Northern Ireland coastline. The dataset was created by analyzing Ordnance Survey maps and aerial imagery from the early 1800s onward, using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) to calculate rate-of-change statistics at 25-meter intervals. The data, last updated in March 2026, includes metrics like Net Shoreline Movement and Weighted Linear Regression Rate to visualize coastal change over annual to decadal periods.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and accretion rates based on the Weighted Linear Regression (WLR) and Linear Regression Rate (LRR) statistics.
• Identifying areas of significant shoreline movement using the Net Shoreline Movement (NSM) and Shoreline Change Envelope (SCE) metrics.
• Visualizing historical coastal change over time using the geospatial data derived from Ordnance Survey maps and aerial imagery.

Strengths

• Analysis covers the entire Northern Ireland coastline.
• Data spans a long temporal range from the early 1800s onward.
• Rate-of-change statistics are calculated at a high spatial resolution of 25-meter intervals.
• Multiple statistical measures (NSM, SCE, EPR, LRR, WLR) are provided for analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the source maps and imagery.

Provenance

Source

OpenDataNI, likely based on work by Ulster University.

Collection Method

Historical shoreline analysis based on Ordnance Survey maps and aerial imagery, processed using the ArcGIS Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS).

Time Range

Early 1800s onward.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-18 11:22:56.645314; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Ireland coastline.