West Ocean City, MD Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 2.8 miles south of West Ocean City, MD
The coast 2.8 miles south of West Ocean City, MD has been retreating at a measured 5.51 feet a year, USGS's own long-term rate for this stretch, built from historical shoreline positions rather than a single survey. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 55.1 feet over the last decade.
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 West Ocean City, MD. Centered near 38.31°N, 75.11°W. USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2007-2009, 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.
25 years at this rate
If 5.51 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 2.8 miles south of West Ocean City, MD would retreat roughly 138 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 85 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±1.04 ft/yr. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 49. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Rank 359 nationally for erosion belongs to Bolinas, CA, 2558 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.39 ft/yr, a small fraction of this stretch's own rate. 1.9 miles up the coast, West Ocean City, MD shows 3.43 ft/yr of eroding.
One address near West Ocean City: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.