The compilation of an accurate and contemporary digital shoreline for Alaska is an important step in understanding coastal processes and measuring changes in coastal storm characteristics. Consistent with efforts by the United States National Park Service (NPS) at Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (BELA) and Cape Krusenstern National Monument, high quality, defensible digital shoreline datasets are under development for select coastal parks in the State of Alaska. Near BELA, for the area from Cape Prince of Wales to Cape Espenberg, extended revised shoreline coverage can be produced using true color coastal shoreline imagery to update the boundary demarking the mean high water (MHW) shoreline, which represents the boundary between state owned tidal lands and lands in private ownership. In this process, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey Cartographic and Geospatial Technology Program electronic vector shoreline (EVS) revisions demarking MHW coupled with aerial photographic interpretation are used to revise present United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographic shoreline data currently represented in the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). This is a cooperative project by the Western Alaska Land Conservation Cooperative (WALCC), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the NPS, and Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota (SMUMN). NHD compliant MHW shoreline datasets developed within this project are publically available from the USGS National Map for ongoing scientific work and investigations into coastal processes along the Seward Peninsula in Western Alaska.
