Shoreline movement monitoring based on SAR images in Shanghai, China

Abstract

In this article, a divide-and-combine approach and multiscale normalized cut techniques are combined to extract water–land boundaries from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. A validation study shows that waterline extraction from SAR using the proposed algorithm is consistent with that derived from Landsat optical remote-sensing imagery. Analysis of six European Remote Sensing-1/2 (ERS-1/2) satellite and Envisat SAR images acquired at spring tides in Lingang New City, a new land-reclamation city in the suburb of Shanghai, China, between 1993 and 2005 shows the shoreline movement of the study region. We find that the shoreline had minimum seaward movement in the region due to natural forces between 1993 and 1996. Between 1996 and 1999, the shoreline moved more in the eastern and slower in the western part due to artificial impelling siltation and deposition of silt in the Yangtze River. Later, between 1999 and 2005, the shoreline significantly changed following commencement of a tidal flat reclamation project.