Sears Island Planning Initiative
Miles of Shoreline - Data
Janet Parker, GIS Coordinator, Maine State Planning Office
July 10, 2006
The following figures are estimates. Due to time constraints the calculations were done quickly with the possibility of missing sections. These numbers may be considered ‘at least’, as in ‘there are at least 890 shoreline miles of conserved lands’, there are probably more, but no less.
The term ‘shoreline’ includes ocean shoreline as well as estuarine (tidal rivers) shoreline.
Conserved lands represented are those listed in the Maine Office of GIS data layer: Mecnslnd. This data layer includes all State Parks, State Historic Sites, State Wildlife Management Areas, National or Federal parks (to the best of our knowledge), some privately owned conserved lands, and few municipal conserved lands. This data layer is focused on conservation lands funded by the Land For Maine’s Future program. This data layer is incomplete, we do not have every piece of conserved land. Much land is held by land trusts, privately owned, or municipally owned; we do not have all this information. This is why the estimate is at least 890 miles, and should be considered a low estimate.
Miles of shoreline by county (mainland and islands)
As calculated by ArcMap, total miles of shoreline: 5412
Cumberland - 1289
Hancock - 1714
Kennebec - 70
Knox - 1963
Lincoln - 1156
Penobscot - 32
Sagadahoc - 1205
Waldo - 172
Washington - 2247
York - 491
Amount of shoreline in public ownership
As calculated by ArcMap, miles of shoreline in conservation = 890
Cumberland - 126
Hancock - 237
Kennebec - 1
Knox - 96
Lincoln - 52
Sagadahoc - 78
Waldo - 22
Washington - 212
York – 66
