Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments
Coasts are continually changing and remote sensing from satellites has the potential to both map and monitor coastal change at multiple scales. Unlike optical technology, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is uninfluenced by darkness, clouds, and rain, potentially offering a higher revision period to ma...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/12/1/163 |
| _version_ | 1797343315678461952 |
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| author | Salvatore Savastano Paula Gomes da Silva Jara Martínez Sánchez Arnau Garcia Tort Andres Payo Mark E. Pattle Albert Garcia-Mondéjar Yeray Castillo Xavier Monteys |
| author_facet | Salvatore Savastano Paula Gomes da Silva Jara Martínez Sánchez Arnau Garcia Tort Andres Payo Mark E. Pattle Albert Garcia-Mondéjar Yeray Castillo Xavier Monteys |
| author_sort | Salvatore Savastano |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Coasts are continually changing and remote sensing from satellites has the potential to both map and monitor coastal change at multiple scales. Unlike optical technology, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is uninfluenced by darkness, clouds, and rain, potentially offering a higher revision period to map shoreline position and change, but this can only be feasible if we have a better interpretation of what shorelines as extracted from SAR imagery represent on the ground. This study aims to assess the application of shorelines extracted from SAR from publicly available satellite imagery to map and capture intra-annual to inter-annual shoreline variability. This is assessed in three tidally controlled coastal study areas that represent sand and gravel beaches with different backshore environments: low-lying dunes and marsh; steep, rocky cliff; and urban environments. We have found that SAR shorelines consistently corresponded to positions above the high-water mark across all three sites. We further discuss the influence of the scene geometry, meteorological and oceanographic conditions, and backshore environment and provide a conceptual interpretation of SAR-derived shorelines. In a low-lying coastal setting, the annual change rate derived through SAR presents a high degree of alignment with the known reference values. The present study contributes to our understanding of the poorly known aspect of using shorelines derived from publicly available SAR satellite missions. It outlines a quantitative approach to automatically assess their quality with a new automatic detection method that is transferable to shoreline evolution assessments worldwide. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T10:45:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fc3b05d60c70470f9c8c32ff343c3dd3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1312 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T10:45:51Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
| spelling | doaj.art-fc3b05d60c70470f9c8c32ff343c3dd32024-01-26T17:17:28ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122024-01-0112116310.3390/jmse12010163Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal EnvironmentsSalvatore Savastano0Paula Gomes da Silva1Jara Martínez Sánchez2Arnau Garcia Tort3Andres Payo4Mark E. Pattle5Albert Garcia-Mondéjar6Yeray Castillo7Xavier Monteys8isardSAT UK, Guildford GU2 7YG, UKIHCantabria—Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental, Universidad de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, SpainIHCantabria—Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental, Universidad de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, SpainIHCantabria—Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental, Universidad de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, SpainBritish Geological Survey, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UKisardSAT UK, Guildford GU2 7YG, UKisardSAT UK, Guildford GU2 7YG, UKDepartment of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth, W23 X021 Maynooth, IrelandMarine and Coastal Unit, Geological Survey Ireland, A94 N2R6 Blackrock, IrelandCoasts are continually changing and remote sensing from satellites has the potential to both map and monitor coastal change at multiple scales. Unlike optical technology, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is uninfluenced by darkness, clouds, and rain, potentially offering a higher revision period to map shoreline position and change, but this can only be feasible if we have a better interpretation of what shorelines as extracted from SAR imagery represent on the ground. This study aims to assess the application of shorelines extracted from SAR from publicly available satellite imagery to map and capture intra-annual to inter-annual shoreline variability. This is assessed in three tidally controlled coastal study areas that represent sand and gravel beaches with different backshore environments: low-lying dunes and marsh; steep, rocky cliff; and urban environments. We have found that SAR shorelines consistently corresponded to positions above the high-water mark across all three sites. We further discuss the influence of the scene geometry, meteorological and oceanographic conditions, and backshore environment and provide a conceptual interpretation of SAR-derived shorelines. In a low-lying coastal setting, the annual change rate derived through SAR presents a high degree of alignment with the known reference values. The present study contributes to our understanding of the poorly known aspect of using shorelines derived from publicly available SAR satellite missions. It outlines a quantitative approach to automatically assess their quality with a new automatic detection method that is transferable to shoreline evolution assessments worldwide.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/12/1/163coastal erosionEarth observationremote sensingshorelineSAR |
| spellingShingle | Salvatore Savastano Paula Gomes da Silva Jara Martínez Sánchez Arnau Garcia Tort Andres Payo Mark E. Pattle Albert Garcia-Mondéjar Yeray Castillo Xavier Monteys Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments Journal of Marine Science and Engineering coastal erosion Earth observation remote sensing shoreline SAR |
| title | Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments |
| title_full | Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments |
| title_fullStr | Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments |
| title_short | Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments |
| title_sort | assessment of shoreline change from sar satellite imagery in three tidally controlled coastal environments |
| topic | coastal erosion Earth observation remote sensing shoreline SAR |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/12/1/163 |
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