Barnegat Light, NJ Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 0.6 miles northwest of Barnegat Light, NJ
0.6 miles northwest of Barnegat Light, NJ: USGS's transects didn't pick up a trend here that beats the survey's own uncertainty. That's the majority case nationally, and for this stretch specifically it means the coast is holding, not that the data failed to find anything.
What this reading actually covers
This is a roughly 3.5-mile stretch of coast, not one address or parcel - USGS's own transects run every few hundred feet, but that's finer than any one property needs, so this page reports the stretch nearest Barnegat Light, NJ. Centered near 39.76°N, 74.12°W. USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2007-2009, computing the rate with its LRR method. Other US regions were surveyed in different years, sometimes decades apart, so this page states its own rather than implying one national vintage.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 78 individual transects averaged together, 59% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 1.17 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.33 ft/yr reading would land it 391 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Old Orchard Beach, ME sits at national rank 1132 for growth (1.28 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 325 miles from here. 1.8 miles up the coast, Barnegat Light, NJ shows 1.02 ft/yr of eroding.
One address near Barnegat Light: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.