Siesta Key, FL Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 1 miles southeast of Siesta Key, FL?
1 miles southeast of Siesta Key, FL, the coast is advancing, not retreating, at a measured 2.82 feet a year, sediment accumulating faster than any erosion USGS recorded here. At that rate, the shoreline has gained roughly 28.2 feet over the last decade.
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 Siesta Key, FL, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 27.27, -82.54. 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.
What 2.82 ft/yr means over time
Holding the 2.82 ft/yr accretion rate 1 miles southeast of Siesta Key, FL for 25 years would add roughly 71 feet of shoreline, again assuming nothing about the local sediment supply changes.
How solid is this number
Averaging 56 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 9% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. USGS's confidence interval here is ±1.1 ft/yr. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 1178. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Sarita, TX sits at national rank 1087 for growth (0.88 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 912 miles from here. Gulf Gate, FL, 2.2 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, reading slight erosion at 0.49 ft/yr.
Siesta Key, FL on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.