Destin, FL Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 1.3 miles east of Destin, FL?
1.3 miles east of Destin, FL: 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 "Destin" means on this page
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 Destin, FL. Centered near 30.41°N, 86.45°W. USGS's Gulf of Mexico assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2001, 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 backs this reading up
This reading comes from 87 individual transects averaged together, 18% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.52 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.09 ft/yr reading would land it 840 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. For scale: Seadrift, TX, 625 miles away, ranks 1150 of 1211 nationally for growth, 1.79 ft/yr. Miramar Beach, FL, 2.9 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
Destin, FL on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.