In 2011, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a policy into law that specifies living shorelines as the preferred management practice for erosion control in Virginia waters. In accordance with the law, the Commonwealth defines a living shoreline as ... "... a shoreline management practice that provides erosion control and water quality benefits; protects, restores or enhances natural shoreline habitat; and maintains coastal processes through the strategic placement of plants, stone, sand fill, and other structural and organic materials". The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has been developing tools for several years to guide local governments in shoreline management. In particular, they have focused on the use of ecologically preferred alternatives for erosion control and have conducted research into refining the appropriate uses for a large suite of possible treatments based on existing shoreline conditions. A series of Decision Trees were developed to determine shoreline best management practices when conducting onsite inspections. These were developed to support integrated guidance at the management and regulatory level. This body of work has been expanded and re-developed as a GIS spatial model known as the Shoreline Management Model (SMM) to determine appropriate shoreline best management practices from the desk-top using available spatial data and the decision tree logic. The assessment is conducted at parcel level scale but the output represents a reach based or cumulative approach to shoreline management. The variables used in the SMM include fetch, nearshore bathymetry, bank condition, bank height, marsh presence, beach presence, tree canopy presence, and permanent structures within the riparian zone. Most appropriate for desk-top reviews, regulatory compliance and comprehensive planning, the recommendations derived from the SMM may be altered due to lot size, proximity of primary buildings to the shoreline, or presence of existing erosion control structures. The output of the SMM is delivered to the end user in three ways: static map, interactive map viewer, and digital shape file.