Shoreline Definition and Detection: A Review

Analysis of shoreline variability and shoreline erosion-accretion trends is fundamental to a broad range of investigations undertaken by coastal scientists, coastal engineers, and coastal managers. Though strictly defined as the intersection of water and land surfaces, for practical purposes, the dynamic nature of this boundary and its dependence on the temporal and spatial scale at which it is being considered results in the use of a range of shoreline indicators. These proxies are generally one of two types: either a feature that is visibly discernible in coastal imagery (e.g., high-water line [HWL]) or the intersection of a tidal datum with the coastal profile (e.g., mean high water [MHW]). Recently, a…

• QG
  Queensland Government
• NS
  New South Wales Government