Matagorda, TX Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 4.4 miles south of Matagorda, TX
Averaged across every transect USGS ran 4.4 miles south of Matagorda, TX, the shoreline has been moving inland at 0.43 feet a year, a real measured rate, not a regional estimate applied to this stretch. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 4.3 feet over the last decade.
What "Matagorda" means on this page
Matagorda, TX is the nearest named place, 4.4 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: 28.63, -95.95. 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 0.43 ft/yr means over time
Run 4.4 miles south of Matagorda, TX's 0.43 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 11 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
Where this fits nationally
Averaging 103 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 100% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.35 ft/yr. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 334. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Provincetown, MA sits at national rank 254 for erosion (0.63 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 1718 miles from here. Matagorda, TX, 1.7 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
Matagorda, TX on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.