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Hudson River Estuary Shoreline Type Inventory

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About this project

Battered by tides, ice, storms, and human activity, nearly half of New York state's Hudson River shoreline has been “armored up ” by structures such as steel bulkheads or rock revetments. While these structures can protect vulnerable infrastructure in high-energy situations, they also disrupt surrounding habitats. In response, the Hudson River Reserve launched the Sustainable Shorelines project, a long-term, collaborative initiative that is advancing understanding of the engineering, economic, and ecological tradeoffs of using different shoreline management options today—and as the climate shifts and sea levels rise—for generations to come.

About this resource

As part of this project, team members completed an inventory of shoreline types along the Hudson River from the Tappan Zee Bridge to Troy. This inventory is a tool to calculate shoreline extent and distribution at three levels of classification and it also provides a baseline of summer/fall 2005 shoreline conditions. Metadata and GIS shapefile data is available through New York State's GIS Clearinghouse.