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Vectorized Marsh Shorelines for the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Mississippi and Alabama from 1848 to 2017

Metadata Updated: November 26, 2025

This dataset represents a compilation of vector shorelines in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (Mississippi and Alabama) from 1848 to 2017. Shoreline data were obtained from multiple data sources, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR), and the Mississippi Office of Geology (MOG). All shoreline data types have uncertainty associated with delineating the shoreline location, particularly with vegetated coastlines. For this study, the "apparent shoreline" was mapped for all data sources. The "apparent shoreline" is defined as "where the actual shoreline is obscured by marsh, mangrove, cypress, or other type of marine vegetation, the outer edge of the vegetation is mapped” (Shalowitz, 1964). In the case of aerial imagery, vegetation-water boundary was digitized. Field-surveys identified the edge of the dominate vegetation or the eroding scarp line. Shorelines were obtained from the original provider, or digitized, and merged into a single file, in order to conduct shoreline change analyses. Datasets were compiled and analyzed using the R package Analyzing Moving Boundaries Using R (AMBUR) program. Rates of shoreline change can be used for evaluating living shoreline resources, decision-making for future resource planning, and restoration of both protected and open-ocean shorelines. This data release contains shorelines from 1848-2017 along with transects with rates of change joined to the data table. This metadata record should be reviewed in its entirety to ensure specific data is suitable for other studies as some shorelines were specifically digitized for use with transects in this study. Shorelines from 1942, 1975, 1986, 1992, 2004, 2006, 2014 have limited spatial resolution. All shorelines labeled GBNERR in the “Source” field of the attribute table, and 2016 and 2017 GPS shorelines from the USGS, are previously unpublished data sets.

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 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 26, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 26, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-2d96b343-7559-4b06-a38c-a33428331b6e
Data Last Modified 2020-10-13T00:00:00Z
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 d16dc6d2-3e24-43e6-b5a1-804078d60e26
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 3847f86a4617b30cce4b58725eed0fb4428db65e787c85ae64ae0e44b2b424fe
Source Schema Version 1.1

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