Hingham, MA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 2.7 miles north of Hingham, MA?
The coast 2.7 miles north of Hingham, MA 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 Hingham, MA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 42.27°N, 70.88°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.
What backs this reading up
10 transects feed this segment's number; 0% of them individually measured retreat. USGS's confidence interval here is ±0.1 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.01 ft/yr reading would land it 779 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Mexico Beach, FL sits at national rank 1046 for growth (0.6 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 1172 miles from here. 1.5 miles up the coast, Hull, MA shows the same lack of a significant trend.
One address near Hingham: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.