DGGS releases interactive mapping tool

Alaska’s Division of Geological and Geophysical Services has released a new online tool for evaluating erosion along Alaska’s coastline. Called the Alaska Shoreline Change Tool, the new tool provides an interactive map displaying both past and predicted future shoreline positions. Users of the tool can view changes in the shoreline over the past 50 years and, in some cases, projections of future shoreline profiles, DGGS says.

The tool currently encompasses the coastlines of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and the shorelines at Port Heiden, Unalakleet, Wales and Kivalina: More areas of coastline will be added as additional data are collected, DGGS says.

The agency says that development of the new tool has involved the collection of information from many sources including shoreline mapping projects conducted by numerous investigators. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has prepared an illustrated guide to the data presented in the tool.

The tool can be accessed at dggs.alaska.gov/pubs/id/29503.

- ALAN BAILEY