Abstract

Using ArcMap to extract shorelines from Landsat TM data
Track: Ocean, Coastal, and Marine Resources
Authors: Richard Daniels

Many site and region specific shoreline change monitoring programs use expensive and time intensive methodologies for data collect. The collection, compilation, and analysis of this data can take years. This study demonstrates a low cost methodology for quantifying regional shoreline change using Landsat TM and ETM+ data. The near-continues 29 year record of TM and ETM+ data makes this a rich dataset for both decadal and annual change analysis.

Using Landsat data this study derived ocean shorelines for the years 1983, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2011 for southwest Washington and northwest Oregon. A shoreline change trend analysis was then conducted at 1 km intervals along the coast. The change rates for the period 1994 to 1999 were compared to published rates obtained from orthophotography and a high correlation obtained.