Occohannock Creek Shoreline Erosion Assessment and Living Shoreline Options Report

This study provides information to Occohannock Creek property owners to help them assess their shoreline stability and their options if erosion is a problem. In the past, shoreline erosion control options were typically limited to rip-rap, groins, or bulkheads. These hard structures often destroyed marsh and other habitat and may not have provided the protection desired. Other methods of erosion control now exist that have been used in a variety of conditions and evaluated for their durability and performance. The alternative techniques incorporate vegetation and are referred to as Living Shoreline designs. Conditions on Occohannock Creek make it a very good place to use Living Shoreline techniques to stabilize areas that are losing land or fringe marsh. All segments of Occohannock Creek can achieve some benefit by planting new marsh grasses or enhancing those already present to improve habitat, trap sediment, and reduce the erosive force of waves

GIS Data: Northumberland County, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions that can be observed from a small boat navigating along the shoreline or by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions: 1 ) the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use; 2 ) the bank, evaluated for height, stability, cover and natural protection; and 3 ) the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes. The 2014 Inventory for Northumberland County was generated using on-screen, digitizing techniques in ArcGIS® - ArcMap v10.0 while viewing conditions observed 2012 Bing online high resolution oblique imagery and 2013 imagery from the Virginia Base Mapping Program (VBMP). These data sources allowed the inventory to be generated without additional field work. Three GIS shapefiles are developed. The first describes land use and bank conditions (northumberland_lubc_2014). The second reports shoreline structures that are described as arcs or lines (northumberland_sstru_2014). The final shapefile includes all structures that are represented as points (northumberland_astru_2014). The shapefiles use a shoreline basemap updated in-house from the 2009 VBMP high resolution digital terrain model. The shoreline is re-coded to reflect features and attributes observed. The metadata file accompanies the shapefiles and defines attribute accuracy, data development, and any use restrictions that pertain to dat