Advancing coastal resilience: Coastal vulnerability assessment using cutting-edge space geodetic and optical imaging techniques

Abstract

Space geodetic and optical imaging techniques are employed to assess the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) in order to adapt to the contemporary approach to coastal classification. Satellite altimeter, Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) and integrated multi-satellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were among the satellite data used. The variables were deemed adequate based on the spatiotemporal estimates, then were quantified through expert-weighted scores and integrated into a single index over the Terengganu coastal area. The CVI findings performed better with eight variables, showing higher overall accuracy (70.83%), Kappa coefficient (59.02%), and area under curve (AUC) (0.8) than the conventional six variables. Vulnerability rankings are distributed relatively evenly across the Terengganu coast, with the moderate (2) ranking being the most predominant at 27.2% of the total area. Space geodetic and optical imagery techniques prove highly beneficial to CVI assessment, offering a viable alternative to traditional methods, especially for broader-scale coastal management.