Video-Monitoring Tools for Assessing Beach Morphodynamics in Tidal Beaches

Abstract

Beach behaviour and evolution are controlled by a large number of factors, being susceptible to human-derived pressures and the impacts of climate change. In order to understand beach behaviour at different scales, systematic monitoring programs that assess shoreline and volumetric changes are required. Video-monitoring systems are widely used in this regard, as they are cost-effective and acquire data automatically and continuously, even in bad weather conditions. This work presents a methodology to use the basic products of low-cost IP video cameras to identify both the cross-shore and long-shore variability of tidal beaches. Shorelines were automatically obtained, digital elevation models (DEMs) were generated and validated with real data, and the outputs were combined to analyse beach behaviour from a morphodynamic perspective. The proposed methodology was applied to La Victoria Beach (SW Spain) for the analysis of beach variations over a 5-year period. The combination of shoreline position analysis and data from DEMs facilitates understanding and provides a complete overview of beach behaviour, revealing alongshore differences in an apparently homogeneous beach. Furthermore, the methods used allowed us to inter-relate the different processes occurring on the beach, which is difficult to achieve with other types of techniques.