This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release includes geospatial datasets that were created to analyze wetland changes along the Virginia and Maryland Atlantic coasts between 1984 and 2015. Wetland change was determined by assessing two metrics: wetland persistence and land-cover switching. Because seasonal water levels, beach width, and vegetation differences can affect change analyses, only images acquired during the spring (March, April, and May) were included in the wetland-change metrics (N=10). USGS Data Series 968 (Bernier and others, 2015) presented data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. As part of the wetland-change analyses, two additional satellite images (17-April-1985 and 05-May-2015) were processed and classified using the methods described by Bernier and others (2015) to provide a more complete time series dataset. One additional image (26-April-1994) was reprocessed to correct a classification error that was identified when comparing wetland and total analysis extents among all images.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release includes geospatial datasets that were created for the analysis of Virginia and Maryland Atlantic coastal wetland changes over time. Wetland change was determined by assessing two metrics: wetland persistence and land-cover switching. Because seasonal water levels, beach width, and vegetation differences can affect change analyses, only images acquired during the spring (March, April, and May) were included in the wetland-change metrics (N=10). Land-cover switching was evaluated using Landsat images for successive spring image-acquisition dates: 1985–1989, 1989–1994, 1994–1999, 1999–2004, 2004-2009, 2009-2011, 2011-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015. To evaluate land-cover switching, land-cover types defined by Bernier and others (2015) were reclassified as 1 (water), 3 (wetland), or 7 (non-wetland). These values were chosen so the results of subtracting two dates will create unique values for each scenario. For example, if a cell in 1994 is classified as land and in 1989 was wetland, the result (1994-1989 or 7-3) is 4. If the cell in 1994 is wetland and in 1989 was water (3-1) the result is 2. With this analysis, each two-date combination results in a raster that identifies wetland-land-water conversions, such that water-to-land is -6, wetland-to-land is -4, water-to-wetland is -2, wetland-to-water equals 2, land-to-wetland is 4, and land-to-water is 6.

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release includes geospatial datasets that were created for the analysis of Virginia and Maryland Atlantic coastal wetland changes over time. Wetland change was determined by assessing two metrics: wetland persistence and land-cover switching. Because seasonal water levels, beach width, and vegetation differences can affect change analyses, only images acquired during the spring (March, April, and May) were included in the wetland-change metrics (N=10). Land-cover switching was evaluated using Landsat images for successive spring image-acquisition dates: 1985–1989, 1989–1994, 1994–1999, 1999–2004, 2004-2009, 2009-2011, 2011-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015. To evaluate land-cover switching, land-cover types defined by Bernier and others (2015) were reclassified as 1 (water), 3 (wetland), or 7 (non-wetland). These values were chosen so the results of subtracting two dates will create unique values for each scenario. For example, if a cell in 1994 is classified as land and in 1989 was wetland, the result (1994-1989 or 7-3) is 4. If the cell in 1994 is wetland and in 1989 was water (3-1) the result is 2. With this analysis, each two-date combination results in a raster that identifies wetland-land-water conversions, such that water-to-land is -6, wetland-to-land is -4, water-to-wetland is -2, wetland-to-water equals 2, land-to-wetland is 4, and land-to-water is 6.