USGS National Shoreline Change - A compilation of published shoreline change rates (1800s-2010s) for the contiguous United States

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains shoreline positions for the United States coasts from both older sources, such as aerial photos or topographic surveys, as well as contemporary sources like lidar elevation point clouds and digital elevation models (DEMs). These shorelines are compiled and analyzed in the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software to compute rates of change. It is important to update and maintain records of historical shoreline positions to allow monitoring of change over time, and to identify areas most susceptible to erosion or accretion. These data can help coastal managers identify areas along the shore that are most likely to experience significant change over time. This data release is a compilation of long-term rates of change from multiple USGS publications from 2000-2025 for the contiguous United States. Please see the original previously published USGS shoreline change citations for descriptions of methods and data sources for each dataset.