Developing Coastal Video Monitoring Systems in Support of Coastal Zone Management

• Published in: Journal of coastal research pp. 49 - 56
• Main Authors: Davidson, M.A., Aarninkhof, S.G.J., Van Koningsveld, M., Holman, R.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Coastal Education & Research Foundation (CERF) 01.12.2006
• Subjects: Beaches; Benchmarking; Coastal management; Coasts; Dunes; Environmental policy; Navigation; Observational frames of reference; Sandbars; Shipping
• ISSN: 0749-0208; 1551-5036

This paper examines the potential of coastal video systems as a tool to aid effective coastal zone management. The results presented in this contribution are derived from a large-scale international European research programme, the Coast View project. This research focuses on the derivation of simple parameters or 'coastal state indicators' from oblique video images, which can assist in monitoring and managing the coastal environment. Coastal state indicators (CSIs) can be defined as: "A reduced set of issue-related parameters that can simply, adequately and quantitatively describe the dynamic-state and evolutionary trends of a coastal system". A consortium of scientists and national-scale coastal zone managers were formed in order to define a set of CSIs that were clearly aligned with specific coastal management problems. It is shown that potentially CSIs can have a positive impact on management areas such as coastal protection, navigation, recreation and ecosystem protection. Video stations were installed at four morphologically dissimilar field sites, each with their own set of coastal management problems. These sites were used to ground truth and test the utility of video-derived CSIs for coastal zone management. A methodology is presented for clearly associating CSIs with strategic management objectives, setting clear benchmarks beyond which action is required and providing an assessment stage that appraises the result of the action taken. An example case study is presented illustrating how video-derived CSIs can potentially satisfy the strategic objectives set by coastal managers. The example presented here shows how video-derived estimates of the Momentary Coastline (MCL) position can be used to provide cost-effective estimates of shoreline change with higher temporal and spatial resolution than existing survey methods.