In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a report detailing coastline change in New England and the Mid-Atlantic States over the past 100 years. The report omitted analysis of Connecticut’s coastline because it is tucked away behind Long Island. To make up for this short fall, a team from the Connecticut Sea Grant, UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research, and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has been examining drawings, photos, and GPS data gathered between the 1880s and 2006 to create a portrait of how Connecticut’s coastline has changed over the past 130 years.
The group found Connecticut’s shoreline, despite being protected by Long Island, is a dynamic coast with constantly shifting sands. There are many reasons shorelines advance and retreat, but the causes are usually a mixture of human activities and natural forces, such as storms, tides, and wind. While some areas of Connecticut have consistently lost ground, others have gained. The study has shown the shoreline has a higher rate of loss in eastern Connecticut, but that much of the shoreline gains on the western end of the state were caused by human activities like filing of waterfront areas for development.
You can get a better sense of Connecticut’s changing shoreline by exploring these interactive maps produced by the Connecticut Mirror using data from the shoreline research group.
