Historical monitoring along central Padre Island records the nature and magnitude of changes in position of the shoreline and vegetation line and provides insight into the factors affecting those changes.

Texas is endowed with an enormous variety of natural land resources that vary from the humid forest lands of East Texas to the vast desert lands of Trans-Pecos, from the swamps and marshes of the Texas Coastal Zone to the arid plains of the Panhandle, and from the rich farmland of Central Texas to the sparsely vegetated sand plain of the south Texas coast. Almost 270,000 square miles of land, including plains, plateaus, mountains, hill country, beaches, river valleys, badlands, and many other types of terrain, comprise the natural land wealth of the State.

The Paluxy Formation is a stratigraphic unit which is composed of sandstone and shale and extends across the northern part of the East Texas embayment. Paluxy deposits were derived from sedimentary rocks to the north, and they accumulated in shoreface and coastal plain environments associated with an irregular southward regression of the shoreline. Preserved in the sedimentary mass are three major depositional systems: a centrally located delta system, a fluvial system in the north, and a strandplain system in the west.

The Texas Coastal Zone is marked by diversity in geography, resources, climate, and industry. It is richly andowed with extensive petroleum reserves, sulfur and salt, deep-water ports, intracoastal waterways, mild climate, good water supplies, abundant wildlife, commercial fishing resources, unusual recreational potential, and large tracts of uncrowded land in close proximity to major population centers.

The State of Texas has about 367 miles of open Gulf shoreline, most of it typified by rather broad, sandy beaches and a comparatively mild climate that permits almost year-round use of this recreational resource. All but about 87 miles of the Gulf beach is accessible to the general public.