Newport Beach, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 4.4 miles southeast of Newport Beach, CA
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 4.4 miles southeast of Newport Beach, CA, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What this reading actually covers
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Newport Beach, CA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 33.57, -117.83. The survey behind it runs to 1852-2016, in USGS's California 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.
Where this fits nationally
40 transects feed this segment's number; 48% of them individually measured retreat. USGS's confidence interval here is ±0.25 ft/yr. The unadjusted figure here, 0 ft/yr, would place it 775 of 1211 if ranked directly - but an unreliable rank isn't a useful one, which is exactly why "no significant trend" is the headline instead. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Marina del Rey, CA sits at national rank 1115 for growth (1.04 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 46 miles from here. Newport Beach, CA, 1.6 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, itself no significant trend.
Newport Beach, CA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.