CoastErosionCheck

Old Orchard Beach, ME Coastal Erosion Rate

Shoreline change 1.1 miles southwest of Old Orchard Beach, ME

No significant trend

Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 1.1 miles southwest of Old Orchard Beach, ME, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.

The grain of this number

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 Old Orchard Beach, ME, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 43.52, -70.38. Survey years: 2007-2009, method LRR, from USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic shoreline-change assessment. That's how current the data is here, real, but not a live feed, since a shoreline survey is a major undertaking, not an annual check-in.

How solid is this number

This reading comes from 1 individual transect averaged together, 0% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.22 ft/yr either side. The unadjusted figure here, 0.21 ft/yr, would place it 926 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 Open-File Report 2010-1119. Rank 975 nationally for growth belongs to Cinco Bayou, FL, 1269 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.34 ft/yr. 1.4 miles away, Old Orchard Beach, ME is the nearest other measured stretch: accretion (beach growing) at 1.28 ft/yr.

Old Orchard Beach, ME on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.