Matagorda, TX Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 7.9 miles east of Matagorda, TX
Averaged across every transect USGS ran 7.9 miles east of Matagorda, TX, the shoreline has been moving inland at 0.61 feet a year, a real measured rate, not a regional estimate applied to this stretch. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 6.1 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
Matagorda, TX is the nearest named place, 7.9 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: 28.68, -95.84. The survey behind it runs to 2001, in USGS's Gulf of Mexico 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.
What 0.61 ft/yr means over time
Run 7.9 miles east of Matagorda, TX's 0.61 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 15 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 55 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. USGS's confidence interval here is ±0.51 ft/yr. Among the 1211 US coastal segments with a measurable trend, this one ranks 260 for erosion, 1 being the fastest-retreating coast in the dataset. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Rank 270 nationally for erosion belongs to Pacifica, CA, 1654 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.6 ft/yr, 1.0x this stretch's rate. 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.