Coastal Erosion Monitoring Using SEAHAWK Airborne Bathymetric LIDAR Data on the East Coast of Korea

Abstract

Lee, J.; Kim, J.; Hur, H., and Wie, G., 2023. Coastal erosion monitoring using SEAHAWK Airborne Bathymetric LIDAR data on the east coast of Korea. Journal of Coastal Research, 39(2), 366–376. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. Coastal erosion is accelerating along the east coast of Korea because of natural and anthropogenic forces. A current constraint in understanding and modeling these changes within large coastal areas is the multitemporal bathymetric data or recursive observations. This is because the main survey techniques for coastal erosion monitoring depend on field and echo-sounding surveys. However, the recent availability of Airborne Bathymetric LIDAR (ABL) systems enables topography mapping over large coastal areas. In particular, the development of the SEAHAWK system, a Korean ABL system, provides more data on the east coast of Korea. The ABL system enables assessing temporal changes along the large coasts without other conventional survey data. However, there are issues with the accuracy of the technique relative to quantitative uncertainties and ability to resolve nearshore spatial patterns of erosion and deposition indicative of geomorphologic change. This study validates the ABL data for coastal erosion monitoring by using the multi-temporal data acquired in 2013 and 2020 on the east coast of Korea and analyzes the results to reveal the quantitative and qualitative effectiveness of this technique.