USGS Map service: National Shoreline Change - Historic Shorelines by State

There are critical needs for a nationwide compilation of reliable shoreline data. To meet these needs, the USGS has produced a comprehensive database of digital vector shorelines by compiling shoreline positions from pre-existing historical shoreline databases and by generating historical and modern shoreline data. Historical shoreline positions serve as easily understood features that can be used to describe the movement of beaches through time. These data are used to calculate rates of shoreline change for the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Assessment of Shoreline Change Project.

Each shoreline may represent a compilation of data from one or more sources for one or more dates provided by one or more agencies. Details regarding source are provided in the 'Data Quality Information' section of the individual shoreline metadata report.

To make this shoreline data more accessible to the public and other agencies, the USGS created this web service. This web service was created utilizing ESRI ArcServer. Vector shoreline layers were collected, organized by state, and symbology made consistent among similar data sets. This service meets open geospatial consortium standards.