CoastErosionCheck

Mastic Beach, NY Coastal Erosion Rate

What USGS measures 2.1 miles east of Mastic Beach, NY

Moderate erosion

The coast 2.1 miles east of Mastic Beach, NY has been retreating at a measured 1.06 feet a year, USGS's own long-term rate for this stretch, built from historical shoreline positions rather than a single survey. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 10.6 feet over the last decade.

The grain of this number

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 Mastic Beach, NY. Centered near 40.75°N, 72.80°W. The survey behind it runs to 2007-2009, in USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.

25 years at this rate

If 1.06 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 2.1 miles east of Mastic Beach, NY would retreat roughly 27 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.

How solid is this number

This reading comes from 92 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.31 ft/yr. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 191. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Lompoc, CA sits at national rank 404 for erosion (0.3 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 2614 miles from here. West Hampton Dunes, NY, 2.7 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, reading slight erosion at 0.6 ft/yr.

Not this whole stretch, just Mastic Beach itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.