Lidar-Derived Beach and Dune Morphology, Long Branch City to Sandy Hook, New Jersey

As part of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)-funded Monitoring Hurricane Sandy Beach and Marsh Resilience in New York and New Jersey project (NFWF project ID 2300.16.055110), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) is using remotely-sensed data and targeted in-situ observations to monitor the post-restoration evolution of beaches, dunes, vegetative cover, and sediment budgets at seven post-Hurricane Sandy beach and marsh restoration sites in New York and New Jersey. These data and derived ecological resilience metrics will be used to assess the cost-effectiveness and ecological benefits of the restoration techniques and evaluate how the restored parts of the coast have changed through time. The USGS National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project publishes lidar-derived beach morphologic features including dune crest, dune toe, and shoreline position as well as beach width and beach slope along cross-shore transects to help define coastal vulnerability to storm impacts and long-term shoreline change (Doran and others, 2020; https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/data-release/doi-F7GF0S0Z/). This dataset represents a subset of the lidar-derived beach morphology data that includes the coastline from Long Branch City to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. This subset area encompasses NFWF restoration project 43986 (Strengthening Monmouth Beach's Marshes and Dunes) as well as the National Park Service (NPS) Sandy Hook Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area. In addition to subsetting the dataset to the specified alongshore extent, the published data (Doran and others, 2020; https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/data-release/doi-F7GF0S0Z/) were transformed from the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88), GEOID96 to NAVD88, GEOID12B for consistency with other data collected as part of NFWF project 2300.16.055110. For more information, please refer to the full metadata included with each data resource.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated May 15, 2023, 15:35 (UTC)
Created May 25, 2022, 18:42 (UTC)
Data Maintainer Julie Bernier
Email Address jbernier@usgs.gov
Metric Category Ecological
Metric Class Beach Geomorphology, Dune Geomorphology, Elevation, Shoreline
Resilience Grant NFWF-43986
Reporting Years 2017, Pre-2014, 2014
States and Territories NJ
Measurement Stage Baseline, Monitoring
Restoration Activity Dune, Beach