Apalachicola, FL Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 8.7 miles southwest of Apalachicola, FL?
The coast 8.7 miles southwest of Apalachicola, FL shows no statistically significant trend either way. USGS's transects measured a rate here, but it's smaller than the survey's own margin of error for this stretch, so calling it "eroding" or "growing" would overstate what the data actually shows.
What "Apalachicola" means on this page
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Apalachicola, FL into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 29.65°N, 85.11°W. Survey years: 2001, method LRR, from USGS's Gulf of Mexico shoreline-change assessment. That's how current the data is here, real, but not a live feed, since a shoreline survey is a major undertaking, not an annual check-in.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 91 individual transects averaged together, 9% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±1.63 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 1.51 ft/yr reading would land it 1141 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Rank 1098 nationally for growth belongs to Newport Beach, CA, 1940 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.94 ft/yr. 1.8 miles away, Apalachicola, FL is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Apalachicola, FL on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.