Matagorda, TX Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 6.2 miles south of Matagorda, TX
6.2 miles south of Matagorda, TX: USGS's transects didn't pick up a trend here that beats the survey's own uncertainty. That's the majority case nationally, and for this stretch specifically it means the coast is holding, not that the data failed to find anything.
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 Matagorda, TX. Centered near 28.61°N, 96.00°W. 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.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 82 individual transects averaged together, 77% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.65 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.22 ft/yr reading would land it 481 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Fields Landing, CA sits at national rank 1157 for growth (2.04 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 1799 miles from here. 1.8 miles up the coast, Matagorda, TX shows the same lack of a significant trend.
One address near Matagorda: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.