City of Norfolk, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report Methods and Guidelines

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 the City of Norfolk was generated using on-screen, digitizing techniques in ArcGIS® - ArcMap v10.0 while viewing conditions observed in 2012 Bing 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 (Norfolk_lubc_2014). The second reports shoreline structures that are described as arcs or lines (Norfolk_sstru_2014). The final shapefile includes all structures that are represented as points (Norfolk_astru_2014). The shapefiles use a shoreline basemap updated in-house from the 2011 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 data