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2018 Mean High Water Shorelines of the Puerto Rico coast used in Shoreline Change Analysis

Metadata Updated: September 16, 2025

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 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 useful to keep a record of historical shoreline positions as a method of monitoring change over time to identify areas most susceptible to erosion or accretion. These data can help coastal managers understand which areas of the coast are vulnerable. This data release and other associated products represent an expansion of the USGS national-scale shoreline database to include Puerto Rico and its islands, Vieques and Culebra. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Coastal Research and Planning Institute of Puerto Rico (CoRePI, part of the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus) has derived and compiled a database of historical shoreline positions using a variety of methods. These shorelines are used to measure the rate of shoreline change over time.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 16, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 16, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-613f7a90d34e1449c5d35c9e
Data Last Modified 2021-11-19T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 7a990923-1137-433c-a7da-52a5a58d1b44
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -67.2715, 17.9267, -65.2441, 18.5195
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 57f7bbedfc24658cfc0a2fb58b67ddffe9a32f28e1d0941d3d573f10c2883d5d
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -67.2715, 17.9267, -67.2715, 18.5195, -65.2441, 18.5195, -65.2441, 17.9267, -67.2715, 17.9267}

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