Earth observation applications for coastal sustainability: potential and challenges for implementation

Abstract

The coast is home to unique ecosystems, where complex ecological processes take place through the interaction of terrestrial, aquatic, atmospheric, and human landscapes. However, there are considerable knowledge and data gaps in achieving effective and future change-proof sustainable management of coastal zones around the world due to both technical and social barriers, as well as governance challenges. Currently, the role of Earth observation (EO) in addressing many of the recognised information gaps is small and under-utilised. While EO can provide much of the spatiotemporal information required for historical analysis and current status mapping, and offers the advantage of global coverage; its uptake can be limited by technical and methodological challenges associated mostly with lack of capacity and infrastructure, product accuracy and accessibility, costs, and institutional acceptance. While new initiatives and recent technological progress in the EO and information technology arena aim to tackle some of these issues so that EO products can be more easily used by non-EO experts, uptake is still limited. This paper discusses how EO can potentially inform transformative practices of planning in the coastal water zone, by using examples to demonstrate the EO potential in providing information relevant to decision-making framed by international agreements, such as the United Nations Agenda 2030, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction. By presenting evidence for how EO can contribute to innovative opportunities and data synergies at scale, the paper discusses opportunities and challenges for a more solution-led approach to sustainable coastal management.

Coastline Detection Based on Sentinel-1 Time Series for Ship- and Flood-Monitoring Applications

“…detect coastlines in a variety of scientific techniques applied operationally, providing information about their geographical extent and characteristics at a global level [3]. This information is essential for tackling the challenges of environmental monitoring applications, including ship detection in the coastline proximity [4] and coastal flood mapping [5].…”

Sustainable Marine Ecosystems: Deep Learning for Water Quality Assessment and Forecasting

“…As we review in Section IV-C, several studies have shown strong potential for the application of EO together with RS for deriving water quality estimates over long temporal and spatial scales, but the reliable application of these methods is complicated by the diversity of water types, sensor configurations, and inherent limitations of the used approaches [5]. In this regard, the success of ocean color observation schemes can be limited by the effectiveness of the atmospheric correction applied to the data.…”

“…Several methods over coastal waters have been addressed, but there is no single model that works well under the different atmospheric, solar, geographic and water scenarios. Given the amount of involved data and its complex interactions, atmospheric correction over coastal waters is still an open issue to be tackled where DL can be a promising solution [5].…”

“…Sustainable coastal management, despite increased binding legislation, scientific efforts, and investment, still presents numerous implementation problems, including working with incomplete data for the region under study, insufficient understanding of the scale at which coastal systems operate and aggregating simultaneous monitoring of different activities. Proposed solutions point to a need for more integrated approaches supported by coordinated and multidisciplinary processes [5]. Extensive research about coastal sustainability issues has highlighted opportunities for Earth Observation (EO) data and technologies to support coastal management efforts, particularly in relation to environmental monitoring, including Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) detection, disaster response supported by early warning systems, flood monitoring, maritime safety and security issues such as vessel and oil spill detection, and sea-state forecasting [5].…”

“…Proposed solutions point to a need for more integrated approaches supported by coordinated and multidisciplinary processes [5]. Extensive research about coastal sustainability issues has highlighted opportunities for Earth Observation (EO) data and technologies to support coastal management efforts, particularly in relation to environmental monitoring, including Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) detection, disaster response supported by early warning systems, flood monitoring, maritime safety and security issues such as vessel and oil spill detection, and sea-state forecasting [5].…”