National Ocean Service Shoreline—Past, Present, and Future

"Survey of the Coast," a predecessor of the National Ocean Service (NOS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was established by an act of Congress, on February 10, 1807, to survey and map the nation's coastline. Since that time more than 13,000 shoreline survey maps of the United States and its possessions have been produced. The horizontal position of a given natural shoreline will vary depending on the selected vertical reference datum. NOS uses an interpreted mean high-water line for its definition of shoreline. The mean high-water line is not a morphological reference feature but may be interpreted using beach morphological reference features such as berm or wet/dry line as well as contouring. Collection methods have changed over the years from on-site mapping using a planetable to photogrammetric survey mapping, which has been the primary collection method since the 1930s, to the investigation and production integration of commercial satellite imagery, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, and LIght Detection And Ranging technologies. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shoreline products are becoming more readily available due to ongoing cooperative data rescue efforts that convert original products into an accessible digital form. The list of available products include: raster and hard copies of shoreline manuscripts; vector shoreline from shoreline manuscripts; vector state composites; contemporary vector shoreline data; descriptive records (Descriptive Report or Project Completion Report); and photographs. Digital products are being made available through a web-based application, known as the NOAA Shoreline Data Explorer (NSDE). NOS is in the process of reattributing and formatting historical vector shoreline digitized from shoreline manuscripts into a consistent schema of attributes and data fields. The NSDE is a customized Internet mapping interface application coupled with database capabilities that allow users to view available NOS vector shoreline project boundaries; view selected vector shoreline data from one or more project surveys; view and download dynamically generated Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata which includes a link to descriptive records; make printable maps; and download vector shapefiles with user selected classes (themes) and geographic extent. Ongoing efforts will make raster shoreline indices and manuscripts available through the NSDE. Thus, the NOAA Shoreline