Recent storms have focused interest on the dynamics of the shoreline. Receiving attention is the question, “What has it done in the past?” In 2010 the USGS released their report on historical shoreline change along the New England and Mid-Atlantic coasts from Virginia to Maine. Connecticut, buried in the Sound, was passed by. With funding from National Sea Grant, CLEAR, Connecticut Sea Grant, and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has taken on an ambitious project designed to fill the gap. The goal is to highlight and quantify the changes to Connecticut’s shoreline over the last 100 years. Using maps dating from the 1880’s, more recent GIS datasets, and a USGS DSAS software program, shoreline features will be compared along the entire length of the State. Results will identify the areas of significant shoreline change, both eroding and accreting, some of the rates of change, as well as a summary of the overall trends. Results will be used to aid municipalities and resource managers in development of climate change adaptation strategies.
This project was featured in a Channel 3 News story on shoreline erosion that aired 5/8/13. Included in the news clip below is a time sequence of maps and photographs showing shoreline change for Griswold Point in Old Lyme, CT.