Tidal Inlets, 2012-2015, North and Mid-Atlantic Coast, U.S.

This dataset represents the locations and names of tidal inlets open along the North and Mid-Atlantic coast. The data are part of the "Inventory of Habitat Modifications to Tidal Inlets in the U.S. Atlantic Coast Breeding Range of the Piping Plover (Charadruis melodus) as of 2015: Maine to North Carolina" project.

Tidal inlets were located and identified using imagery from Google Earth (2015 and early 2016), U.S. Geological Survey iCoast and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Imagery Program to identify inlets that were open in 2015. An inventory of the inlets was compiled with known habitat modifications recorded for each inlet using Microsoft Excel. Inlets that were historically open also were identified and located where sufficient information existed to mark their approximate location on current maps. At the end of 2015, 412 tidal inlets were open along the U.S. Atlantic coast from Maine to North Carolina. The locations of historical inlets known to have been open in the past but closed in 2015 were identified through historical imagery, historical maps, literature and other sources.

See the reports by T.M. Rice entitled Inventory of Habitat Modifications to Tidal Inlets in the U.S. Atlantic Coast Breeding Range of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) as of 2015: Maine to North Carolina” (2016), "Inventory of Habitat Modifications to Tidal Inlets in the U.S. Atlantic Coast Breeding Range of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) prior to Hurricane Sandy: South Shore of Long Island to Virginia" (2014) and "Inventory of Habitat Modifications to Tidal Inlets in the U.S. Atlantic Coast Breeding Range of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) prior to Hurricane Sandy: Maine to the North Shore of Long Island" (2015) for a full methods description.