Baseline for the Virginia coastal region, generated to calculate shoreline change rates using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System version 5.1

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled national shoreline data for more than 20 years to document coastal change and serve the needs of research, management, and the public. Maintaining a record of historical shoreline positions is an effective method to monitor national shoreline evolution over time, enabling scientists to identify areas most susceptible to erosion or accretion. These data can help coastal managers and planners understand which areas of the coast are vulnerable to change. This data release includes a compilation of previously published historical shoreline positions for Virginia spanning 148 years (1849-1997), and two new mean high water (MHW) shorelines extracted from lidar data collected in 2010 and 2017. [...]