Software for calculating positional boundary change over time The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 6 is a standalone application that calculates shoreline or boundary change over time. The GIS of a user’s choice is used to prepare the data for DSAS. Like previous versions, DSAS v.6 enables a user to calculate rate-of-change statistics from multiple historical shoreline positions...

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Recovery Activities, Hurricanes

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)

April 1, 2024

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)

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Filter Total Items: 17

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September 22, 2025

National Shoreline Change—A GIS compilation of vector shorelines and associated shoreline change data from the 1800s to the 2010s for the coast of Long Island Sound, New York and Connecticut National Shoreline Change—A GIS compilation of vector shorelines and associated shoreline change data from the 1800s to the 2010s for the coast of Long Island Sound, New York and Connecticut

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains shoreline positions for the United States coasts from various historical sources, such as aerial photographs or topographic surveys, and contemporary sources, such as lidar-point clouds and digital elevation models. Shorelines are compiled in a GIS and analyzed in the USGS Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software to calculate rates of...

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, USGS Science in Long Island Sound and its Watershed

April 30, 2025

Topographic data, imagery, and GPS data collected during uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) operations at Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts Topographic data, imagery, and GPS data collected during uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) operations at Town Neck Beach, Sandwich, Massachusetts

Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) were used to collect aerial remote sensing data over Town Neck Beach, a highly trafficked local beach in Sandwich Massachusetts with parking lot, boardwalk, and state maintained sand and vegetation placement. USGS personnel collected natural (RGB) color images, LiDAR, and ground control points starting in December 2023 to support multiple science...

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

December 4, 2024

Beach foreshore slope for the Gulf Coast of the United States Beach foreshore slope for the Gulf Coast of the United States

This data release contains foreshore slopes for primarily open-ocean sandy beaches along the United States portion of the Gulf of Mexico (Texas through Florida). The slopes were calculated while extracting shoreline position from lidar point cloud data collected between 2001 and 2018. The shoreline positions have been previously published, but the slopes have not. An alongshore reference...

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

August 5, 2024

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (version 6) Digital Shoreline Analysis System (version 6)

The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (version 6) is a stand-alone desktop application that complements a Geographic Information System (GIS). The DSAS software requires users to input a reference baseline and compilation of shoreline positions to generate measurement transects and shoreline intersections used to calculate rate-of-change statistics. DSAS provides an automated method for

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

July 15, 2024

Beach foreshore slope for the East Coast of the United States Beach foreshore slope for the East Coast of the United States

This data release contains foreshore slopes for primarily open-ocean sandy beaches along the East Coast of the United States (Maine through Florida). The slopes were calculated while extracting shoreline position from lidar point cloud data collected between 1997 and 2018. The shoreline positions have been previously published, but the slopes have not. A reference baseline was defined...

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

April 10, 2024

Beach foreshore slope for the West Coast of the United States (ver. 1.1, September 2024) Beach foreshore slope for the West Coast of the United States (ver. 1.1, September 2024)

This data release contains foreshore slopes for primarily open-ocean sandy beaches along the west coast of the United States (California, Oregon and Washington). The slopes were calculated while extracting shoreline position from lidar point cloud data collected between 2002 and 2011. The shoreline positions have been previously published, but the slopes have not. A reference baseline...

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

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Image showing MTL contour, marsh edge, and example of calculating the marsh edge

Marsh edge browse graphhic

April 9, 2018

Marsh edge browse graphhic

Image showing MTL contour, marsh edge, and example of calculating the marsh edge

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

April 9, 2018

Marsh edge browse graphhic

Image showing MTL contour, marsh edge, and example of calculating the marsh edge

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Filter Total Items: 13

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April 28, 2023

Accuracy of shoreline forecasting using sparse data Accuracy of shoreline forecasting using sparse data

Sandy beaches are important resources providing recreation, tourism, habitat, and coastal protection. They evolve over various time scales due to local winds, waves, storms, and changes in sea level. A common method used to monitor change in sandy beaches is to measure the movement of the shoreline over time. Typically, the rate of change is estimated by fitting a linear regression...

Authors

Amy S. Farris, Joseph W Long, Emily A. Himmelstoss

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

April 15, 2023

Processes controlling coastal erosion along Cape Cod Bay, MA Processes controlling coastal erosion along Cape Cod Bay, MA

Cape Cod Bay, MA, is a semi-enclosed embayment in the northeastern United States, open on the north to the Gulf of Maine. The coastline experiences impacts typically from strong Nor’easter storms that occur in the late fall or winter months, with some sections of this coastline being affected more severely than others. We investigate the processes that cause spatial variability in storm...

Authors

John C. Warner, Laura L. Brothers, Emily A. Himmelstoss, Christopher R. Sherwood, Alfredo Aretxabaleta, David S. Foster, Amy S. Farris

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

November 9, 2021

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 5.1 user guide Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 5.1 user guide

The Digital Shoreline Analysis System version 5 software is an add-in to Esri ArcGIS Desktop version 10.4–10.7 that enables a user to calculate rate-of-change statistics from a time series of vector shoreline positions. The Digital Shoreline Analysis System provides an automated method for establishing measurement locations, performs rate calculations, provides the statistical data...

Authors

Emily A. Himmelstoss, Rachel E. Henderson, Meredith G. Kratzmann, Amy S. Farris

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

October 19, 2019

Identifying salt marsh shorelines from remotely sensed elevation data and imagery Identifying salt marsh shorelines from remotely sensed elevation data and imagery

Salt marshes are valuable ecosystems that are vulnerable to lateral erosion, submergence, and internal disintegration due to sea-level rise, storms, and sediment deficits. Because many salt marshes are losing area in response to these factors, it is important to monitor their lateral extent at high resolution over multiple timescales. In this study we describe two methods to calculate...

Authors

Amy S. Farris, Zafer Defne, Neil K. Ganju

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

December 21, 2018

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 5.0 user guide Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 5.0 user guide

Overview The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) is a freely available software application that works within the Esri Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) software. DSAS computes rate-of-change statistics for a time series of shoreline vector data. DSAS version 5.0 (v5.0) was released in December 2018 and has been tested for compatibility with ArcGIS versions 10.4 and 10.5. It is...

Authors

Emily A. Himmelstoss, Rachel E. Henderson, Meredith G. Kratzmann, Amy S. Farris

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

August 23, 2018

Comparing methods used by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program for deriving shoreline position from lidar data Comparing methods used by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program for deriving shoreline position from lidar data

The U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program uses three methods to derive a datum-based, mean high water shoreline on open-ocean coasts from light detection and ranging (lidar) elevation surveys. This work compared the shorelines produced by the three methods for two different surveys: one survey with simple beach morphology, and one survey with complex beach morphology...

Authors

Amy S. Farris, Kathryn M. Weber, Kara S. Doran, Jeffrey H. List

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center