Panama City Beach, FL Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 2.1 miles northwest of Panama City Beach, FL
2.1 miles northwest of Panama City Beach, FL: 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.
What this reading actually covers
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 Panama City Beach, FL. Centered near 30.26°N, 85.90°W. 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 backs this reading up
Averaging 107 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 0% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.64 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.18 ft/yr reading would land it 910 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Huntington Beach, CA sits at national rank 1103 for growth (0.98 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 1889 miles from here. 2.2 miles away, Laguna Beach, FL is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Panama City Beach, FL on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.