Highlands, NJ Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 0.3 miles south of Highlands, NJ
The coast 0.3 miles south of Highlands, NJ 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 this reading actually covers
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Highlands, NJ into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 40.40°N, 73.99°W. 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
Averaging 111 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 59% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.88 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.51 ft/yr reading would land it 298 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. For scale: Newport, OR, 2526 miles away, ranks 1121 of 1211 nationally for growth, 1.16 ft/yr. Sea Bright, NJ, 3.4 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
Highlands, NJ on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.