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Ecological Coastal Units – Standardized global shoreline characteristics

Roger Sayre·Kevin Butler·Keith Van Graafeiland·Sean Breyer·Dawn Wright
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Abstract

A new set of resources is now available that describe global shoreline characteristics. High resolution (30 m), globally comprehensive Coastal Segment Units (CSUs) and Ecological Coastal Units (ECUs) were developed in a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Esri, and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON). The data were produced from a segmentation and characterization of a global shoreline vector extracted from year 2014 Landsat imagery. A total of 4 million 1 km shoreline segments were attributed with values from ten variables which describe the ecological settings in which the coastline occurs, including water-side properties, landside properties, and properties of the coastline itself. These data were developed as part of a Group on Earth Observations (GEO) global ecosystem mapping initiative called GEO Ecosystems (GEO ECO). The development of the resource and its intended utility are reviewed herein.

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Roger Sayre, Kevin Butler, Keith Van Graafeiland, Sean Breyer, Dawn Wright. 2022. Ecological Coastal Units – Standardized global shoreline characteristics. https://doi.org/10.1109/oceans47191.2022.9977390

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