Beach Haven, NJ Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 3.7 miles south of Beach Haven, NJ
Averaged across every transect USGS ran 3.7 miles south of Beach Haven, NJ, the shoreline has been moving inland at 8.24 feet a year, a real measured rate, not a regional estimate applied to this stretch. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 82.4 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
Beach Haven, NJ is the nearest named place, 3.7 miles away, to a ~3.5-mile stretch of coast USGS has surveyed - the reading below covers that whole stretch, not a single property in it. Segment center: 39.53, -74.28. 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.
What 8.24 ft/yr means over time
Run 3.7 miles south of Beach Haven, NJ's 8.24 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 206 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
How solid is this number
Averaging 2 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 100% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. Uncertainty on this specific number: 5.16 ft/yr either side. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 29. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Atlantic, VA sits at national rank 149 for erosion (1.68 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 131 miles from here. 1.4 miles away, Beach Haven, NJ is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Not this whole stretch, just Beach Haven itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.