Coastal Dune Condition Codes, North Carolina

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) supports multiple efforts to understand and predict storm impacts to our nation’s coastlines. The geospatial dataset (vector feature class) and comma-delimited American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) table describes the changes in the elevation and cross-shore position of the modern foredune crest from September 1997 to October 2018 across the North Carolina ocean-fronted coastline, as well as infrastructure distance, beach width, and total water level (TWL) elevation information. Two datasets are provided point shapefiles, both at an alongshore resolution of 500 meters (m). The first dataset consists of dune condition codes which provide a summary description of the dune crest height (classified as ‘low’, ‘moderate’, or ‘high’), the dune crest elevation trend (classified as ‘eroding’, ‘no net change’, or ‘accreting’), and the dune crest migration trend (classified as ‘landward’, ‘no net change’, or ‘seaward’) over the last two decades. The cross-shore distance between the dune crest and line of first infrastructure at the end of the study period, the average beach width, and 98% quantile total water level elevation for the study period are also provided. The second dataset consists of interannual dune, beach, and shoreline measurements from which condition code summaries were built and are included so that users may graph and visualize the dune and beach timeseries information at individual condition code locations. An ArcGIS Pro Map Package file is included which displays North Carolina dune condition code and time series features with specific symbology and graphing schema that aid the user in interpreting and visualizing some of the most important data attributes. The methods used to generate this data followed the process outlined in “Decadal-scale characteristics of natural and anthropogenic dune morphology along North Carolina barrier islands (SE Atlantic coast)” by Seymour and others (2026). Seymour, A.C., Ciarletta, D.J., Parker, K., Doran, K.S., Palmsten, M.L., 2026, Decadal-scale characteristics of natural and anthropogenic dune morphology along North Carolina barrier islands (SE Atlantic coast): Journal of Coastal Research, https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-25-00053.1.