Coastal environments represent the confluence of many factors, such as tidal cycles, wave climates, ecosystems, and even human settlement – but underlying all of them is the physical terrain. From the Coast Mountains along the Pacific to the fjords of the Canadian Arctic, the lowlands of James Bay, the saltmarshes and sandstone cliffs of the Maritimes, and the rocky coasts of Newfoundland, the vast Canadian coastline displays diverse environments and terrains along its great length. These physical terrains can be described in many ways, including surficial geology and geomorphology. The CanCoast geospatial database aims to quantify and map the sensitivity of the Canadian marine coastline to climate change using multiple coastal attributes, including the geologic material (e.g. rubble and silt, volcanic rock, etc.) of the backshore zone, or backshore material, which influences the local shoreline dynamics and indicates the resistance to erosion. Currently, CanCoast information on backshore material is derived from 1:5,000,000 scale compilations of surficial and bedrock geology. To further enhance the spatial resolution of the CanCoast materials layer, we review the surficial geology classifications and available related data (sediment grain size, genesis, geomorphology) from multiple federal and provincial sources. This updated backshore materials layer will improve estimations and projections of coastal sensitivity, as well as potential comparisons with a new national compilation of provincial coastal change data to explore the relationship between coastal terrain and the dynamics of erosion and accretion.