Digital substrate imagery of the intertidal shoreline collected between 2011-2023 on the Elwha River Delta, Washington State, USA

This archive includes annual and bi-annual image sets collected on the intertidal beach of the Elwha River delta in Washington State, USA during 18 distinct surveys between 2011 and 2023.  This period spanned the removal of two large dams on the Elwha River, that led to morphologic changes on the river's delta and adjacent shorelines (Warrick and others, 2019).  The images in this archive were collected coincident with topography and bathymetry surveys of the Elwha River delta (Stevens and others, 2025), and provide a photographic record of substrate changes associated with the topobathymetric evolution of a mixed sand and gravel delta. These digital images were collected along transects to support automated ‘digital grain size analysis’ (following, for example, Warrick and others, 2009), or substrate classification.
The collection of this dataset was supported with funding from the US Geological Survey and Washington Sea Grant. These data were collected in part on the lands o..., Images were collected bi-annually or annually during 18 distinct surveys occurring between May 2011 and August 2023. During each survey, images were collected along a set of transects (see table below) oriented perpendicular to the orientation of the shoreline. On each transect, images were collected between the water line, typically below the local mean lower low water tidal datum, and the upper intertidal zone where either vegetation or large wood entirely covered sediments from view. Images were collected typically using a horizontal spacing scheme, with more frequent sampling (a photo collected every 1-2 meters of horizontal distance is common) of the active beach face and areas of substrate change, and wider horizontal spacing between photos (a photo collected every 5-10 meters) on flatter and more uniform lower intertidal zones and back-shore areas. Sampled transects were primarily to the east of the Elwha River mouth, spaced approximately 250 m apart. The archive does includ..., # Digital substrate imagery of the intertidal shoreline collected between 2011-2023 on the Elwha River Delta, Washington State, USA

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxd7](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxd7)

## Description of the data and file structure

This archive includes annual and bi-annual image sets collected on the intertidal beach of the Elwha River delta in Washington State, USA during 18 distinct surveys between 2011 and 2023.  This period spanned the removal of two large dams on the Elwha River, that led to morphologic changes on the river's delta and adjacent shorelines (Warrick and others, 2019).  The images in this archive were collected coincident with topography and bathymetry surveys of the Elwha River delta (Stevens and others, 2025), and provide a photographic record of substrate changes associated with the topobathymetric evolution of a mixed sand and gravel delta. These digital images were collected along transects to support automated ‘digital grain size an..., ,