Monitoring of coastal processes by using airborne laser scanning data

Abstract

The three Baltic States and other Baltic Sea countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia and Sweden) share over 8,000 km of shorelines. Estonia has a shoreline length of approximately 3800 km, due to many islands, bays, and peninsulas. Coast monitoring with traditional surveying methods would be time consuming and expensive. Remote sensing by means of airborne laser scanning (ALS) could be an alternative to traditional coastal surveying methods. Accordingly, the aim of the study is to determine whether ALS data can be used to quantify volume changes along shorelines. The case study utilizes ALS data acquired by the Estonian Land Board in 2008-2011. The ALS flights are conducted in different altitudes (yielding a varying point density) and seasons (spring, summer). Study shows also that accuracy of readily available ALS data products may not be suited for the most demanding applications. Certain computational principles and methods need to be applied for remove systematical biases between different ALS campaigns. The methods and algorithms that where developed and tested during this study yield sub-decimetre accuracy for detecting contemporary coastal processes. Thus, ALS data can be used as an alternative to traditional coastal monitoring methods.

Combining airborne and terrestrial laser scanning to monitor coastal processes

“…Monitoring of coastal processes using ALS data has already been carried out, e.g. along the Baltic Sea shoreline by [16], [17].…”

Monitoring the Dynamics of Formby Sand Dunes Using Airborne LiDAR DTMs

“…It maps the earth's surface and provides very dense and accurate three dimensional spatial data generated over a short period of time [15]. Airborne LiDAR data have been used widely for monitoring coastal changes: sediment volumetric changes [16], shorelines [17,18], coast morphology [19][20][21][22][23], and vegetation growth on coastal dunes [24]. The land surveying techniques (GNSS and terrestrial laser scanner) can be time consuming when surveying large areas, given the rough terrains of the coastal dunes.…”

Coastal dynamics of the eastern Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea: toward a quantitative assessment

“…Combining of ALS and TLS was used for monitoring of beach segment of the Pirita Beach (Tallinn Bay) (Julge et al 2014). ALS flights, conducted in different altitudes and seasons, yield sub-decimetre accuracy for detecting contemporary coastal processes of Tallinn Bay (Grünthal et al 2014). TLS, which provides fast and accurate acquisition of high-resolution spatial data, permitted to receive an information about the volume and size dynamics together with deflation/accumulation schemes and to compile 3D elevation maps for the Vistula Spit (southeast coast of the Baltic Sea) (Volkova et al 2016).…”