USGS National Shoreline Change - 2017 lidar-derived mean high water shoreline and associated shoreline change data for coastal North Carolina

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled national shoreline data for more than 20 years to document coastal change and serve the needs of research, management, and the public. Maintaining a record of historical shoreline positions is an effective method to monitor national shoreline evolution over time, enabling scientists to identify areas most susceptible to erosion or accretion. These data can help coastal managers and planners understand which areas of the coast are vulnerable to change. 

This data release includes one new mean high water (MHW) shoreline extracted from lidar data collected in 2017 for the entire coastal region of North Carolina which is divided into four subregions: northern North Carolina (NCnorth), central North Carolina (NCcentral), southern North Carolina (NCsouth), and western North Carolina (NCwest). Previously published historical shorelines for North Carolina (Kratzmann and others, 2017) were combined with the new lidar shoreline to calculate long-term (up to 169 years) and short-term (up to 20 years) rates of change. Files associated with the long-term and short-term rates are appended with "LT" and "ST", respectively. A proxy-datum bias reference line that accounts for the positional difference in a proxy shoreline (e.g. High Water Line (HWL) shoreline) and a datum shoreline (e.g. MHW shoreline) is also included in this release.