CoastView Special Issue Foreword

Coastal Engineering 54 (2007) 461 – 462 www.elsevier.com/locate/coastaleng

CoastView Special Issue Foreword

Monitoring the current state of beaches and coastlines, and predicting future states on a variety of timescales, are vital activities for the management of our precious coastal resources. The CoastView project was born out of a recognition, by both researchers and managers, that continuous remote video monitoring can potentially make a major contribution to these activities by providing information about the state of the coastline on spatial and temporal scales which are otherwise unavailable to researchers and managers. The development of video monitoring of coastlines has been primarily the domain of researchers interested in the processes responsible for moulding the shapes of shorelines. A remarkable range of video ‘products’, including both hydrodynamic and topographic parameters, can now be derived from video images; chapter 2 of this volume summarises the current state of the art. For managers, the primary potential benefits of video monitoring lie in its ability to monitor coasts in real time, typically hourly but as rapidly as several times a second when needed, over alongshore distances of up to several kilometres. From the outset, however, the CoastView project also recognised that turning research outcomes into products of value to managers would require a concerted effort on the part of both researchers and managers to bridge a communications gap between them. Past experience of trying to implement the results of coastal research in practical management situations, with researchers bringing products to managers, or managers requesting specific products from researchers, has not generally been encouraging, and has often resulted in failure which is frustrating to both groups (see van Koningsveld et al., 2005). The CoastView project therefore uniquely involved researchers and managers, both local and national, as equal partners, in order to provide a real opportunity to bridge the communications gap. As a result, the traditional video-research focus on hydrodynamics and morphology of natural beaches has been successfully extended to reveal different properties and to address more complex environments. The CoastView project involved a consortium of 12 groups from 5 European countries (The Netherlands, UK, Spain, Italy and Denmark) along with a US collaborator, and was funded by the European Commission's Fifth Framework programme. Its overall aims were to develop video-derived products for coastal managers, called Coastal State Indicators (CSI), provide the means of delivering these CSIs in a timely manner to managers, 0378-3839/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.coastaleng.2007.01.005

and ground truth them so that managers could have confidence in them. The papers in this volume provide ample evidence that these innovative and risky aims have been fulfilled to a remarkable degree. Key to the success of the project was the development of a ‘frame of reference’ approach to guide the development of appropriate CSIs (chapter 1 of this volume). Development of this approach was far from trivial, proceeding by trial and error during the early stages of the project, but once developed it provided a structured context that ensured that discussions were focussed and effective. The project can justifiably claim to have bridged the gap between researchers and managers. Chapter 2 of this volume provides an overview of the history and capabilities of the video monitoring system used in the CoastView project, the Argus system developed by Professor Rob Holman and his group at Oregon State University, USA. The rapid development of the system since its introduction, including enhanced data transfer and innovations such as stereo-video, indicate that the potential of video monitoring is very high. This is followed by three chapters focussing on the three main management issues addressed by the project: coastal protection and maintenance, recreation and tourism, and shipping and navigation. These chapters each demonstrate CSIs which are now implemented and of direct value to managers. The new CSIs include improvements to previous monitoring and assessment methodologies, as well as new measures to help managers with day-to-day management or with development of strategy. An example of an improvement to an existing methodology is the development of a CSI which provides continuous monitoring of shoreline locations (MCLs), enhancing the earlier annual or biannual values and allowing the real, un-aliased variability of the coastline to be seen (chapter 3). An example of a new CSI for strategic management is the Beach User Density (BUD) function described in chapter 4, which provides unique spatial and temporal information about the distribution of visitors to a beach. Chapter 4 also describes video-derived beach safety maps, to assist in safely managing the beach on a day-to-day basis. Examples of new CSI of immediate use for managing navigation channels are given in chapter 5. Although each of these CSIs are tailored to the specific site where it is implemented, these CoastView methodologies have been developed in the context of four contrasting beach environments and are therefore likely to be applicable to a wide range of situations.

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Editorial

Chapter 6 discusses ways in which data from video images can enhance predictions of coastal evolution on timescales ranging from days to months, using data-driven models and data assimilation into numerical predictors. The application of these techniques is at an early stage but the results are very encouraging. Chapter 7 provides an Australian perspective on delivering video products to managers and other users, focussing particularly on the use of the world-wide-web. The take-up of these products is rapidly increasing but continuing success will depend on continued collaboration between managers and those developing the products. This volume ends with a critical review of the project and an assessment of future prospects. The chapter concludes that the project has clearly demonstrated the value of video-derived data for the management of coastlines, but contains a warning that positive future developments are not guaranteed but will require continued close dialog between managers and researchers, preferably in the context of the ‘frame of reference’ approach developed by CoastView.

As participants in the development of the CoastView proposal and interested observers and supporters throughout its duration, we offer our congratulations to those involved, for daring to take the risk that moving beyond their research or management environments has entailed and for bringing the project to the successful stage that is demonstrated in this volume. We hope that the papers will inspire all who read them to redouble their efforts to ensure that together researchers and managers develop new ways to enhance our understanding and management of the environment. References van Koningsveld, M., Davidson, M.A., Huntley, D.A., 2005. Matching Science with Coastal Management Needs: the Search for Appropriate Coastal State Indicators. Journal of Coastal Research 21 (3), 399–412.

David Huntley Marcel Stive