Selected studies of sediment tracking in mixed and gravel beaches using RFID technology – A review

Abstract

Coastal erosion is one of the key environment issues which affects living space for human beings as well as it had greater impact on the tourism industry. Several studies have been carried out to protect the sea shores and beaches from heavy storms and high energy waves. One of the possible ways to prevent coastal erosion is to have gravel beaches or cobble beaches which provides better stability and protection against high energy events. Even though they are providing good protection, best solution can be arrived by understanding morphodynamics of the beach. Sediment tracking is one of the possible methods to analyse the morphodynamics of the beach concerned. There are several methods exists for sediment tracking. Of them, most reliable and cost effective technique is, to track the sediment by using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Natural or Artificial pebbles are tagged with RFID tags and they were released on the several regions of the beach under study. After certain period of time, pebbles were tracked with the help of RFID reader along with laptop or palmtop. From the displacement of the pebbles in the study region, it is possible to understand the coastal dynamics of the shoreline concerned. This paper reviews the several scientific studies undertaken with regard to sediment tracking with the help of RFID technology.