Barnstable Town, MA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 4.9 miles northeast of Barnstable Town, MA?
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 4.9 miles northeast of Barnstable Town, MA, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What "Barnstable Town" means on this page
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Barnstable Town, MA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 41.73, -70.32. Survey years: 2007-2009, method LRR, from USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic 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 16 individual transects averaged together, 81% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.25 ft/yr either side. The unadjusted figure here, -0.12 ft/yr, would place it 611 of 1211 if ranked directly - but an unreliable rank isn't a useful one, which is exactly why "no significant trend" is the headline instead. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Quinby, VA sits at national rank 1183 for growth (3.21 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 410 miles from here. 0.9 miles away, Yarmouth Port, MA is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Barnstable Town, MA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.