A multidisciplinary coastal vulnerability assessment for local government focused on ecosystems, Santa Barbara area, California

Incorporating coastal ecosystems in climate adaptation planning is needed to maintain the well-being of both natural and human systems. Our vulnerability study uses a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate climate change vulnerability of an urbanized coastal community that could serve as a model approach for communities worldwide, particularly in similar Mediterranean climates. We synthesize projected changes in climate, coastal erosion and flooding, watershed runoff and impacts to two important coastal ecosystems, sandy beaches and coastal salt marshes. Using downscaled climate models along with other regional models, we find that temperature, extreme heat events, and sea level are expected to increase in the future, along with more intense rainfall events, despite a negligible change in annual rainfall. Consequently, more droughts are expected but the magnitude of larger flood events will increase. Associated with the continuing rise of mean sea level, extreme coastal water levels will occur with increasingly greater magnitudes and frequency. Severe flooding will occur for both natural (wetlands, beaches) and built environments (airport, harbor, freeway, and residential areas). Adaptation actions can reduce the impact of rising sea level, which will cause losses of sandy beach zones and salt marsh habitats that support the highest biodiversity in these ecosystems, including regionally rare and endangered species, with substantial impacts occurring by 2050. Providing for inland transgression of coastal habitats, effective sediment management, reduced beach grooming and removal of shoreline armoring are adaptations that would help maintain coastal ecosystems and the beneficial services they provide

Remote Sensing Applications in Coastal Environment

Coastal regions are susceptible to rapid changes, as they constitute the boundary between the land and the sea. The resilience of a particular segment of coast depends on many factors, including climate change, sea-level changes, natural and technological hazards, extraction of natural resources, population growth, and tourism. Recent research highlights the strong capabilities for remote sensing applications to monitor, inventory, and analyze the coastal environment. This book contains 12 high-quality and innovative scientific papers that explore, evaluate, and implement the use of remote sensing sensors within both natural and built coastal environments

Human Pressures and Impacts on Shallow Seafloor Environments of the Northern Baltic Sea

ABSTRACT Unsustainable use of coastal resources and space has resulted in global degradation of marine environments. Stopping adverse development requires improved understanding of how different human activities affect nature. International treaties and national legislation have been established to stop widespread environmental deterioration, but targeted local actions are still needed. Comprehensive planning processes such as marine spatial planning (MSP) and integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), promote sustainable development of coastal regions and additionally require evaluation of human influence on the marine environment. In this thesis, I examine human pressures and impacts on the shallow seafloor environments of the northern Baltic Sea. The general aim of this work is to improve the quality of location-based human pressure and impact evaluations on marine environments. The work contributes to developing environmentally conscious coastal planning by improving knowledge and introducing new methodological solutions for pressure and impact evaluations. A great variety of spatial data has been used in this work, ranging from LiDAR point clouds to species-specific monitoring data. The analysis processes in the research utilizes and combines methodologies of scenario assessments, spatial modeling and statistical examination with a geographical approach. The results of this study display the possibilities and uncertainties of detailed remote sensing data, categorized biotope data and different modeling approaches when evaluating human pressures and impacts on shallow seafloor environments. This thesis also discusses the possibilities for utilizing open source data on benthic environments and human activities to support sustainable planning decisions. The work also reveals large-scale degradation of benthic keystone species Fucus spp. in the Finnish coastal areas using modeling and species monitoring data. The main findings of this thesis provide new geographical insights on human pressure and impact evaluations that can promote sustainable planning decisions in coastal regions. KEYWORDS: human pressure, human impact, benthic communities, Baltic Sea, maarine spatial planning, coastal planning, spatial modelingTIIVISTELMÄ Rannikkoalueiden ja rannikon resurssien kestämätön käyttö on heikentänyt meriympäristöjen tilaa maailmanlaajuisesti. Kehityksen suunnan kääntäminen edellyttää luotettavaa tietoa ihmisen toiminnasta sekä sen vaikutuksista rannikoiden luontoon. Vaikka kansainväliset sopimukset ja kansalliset lait pyrkivät osaltaan estämään luonnon tilan heikkenemistä, niiden lisäksi tarvitaan paikallisia toimia. Esimerkiksi laaja-alaiset rannikoilla tehtävät suunnitteluprosessit, kuten merialuesuunnittelu (MSP) ja rannikkoalueiden yhdennetty käyttö ja hoito (ICZM), tavoittelevat kestävää kehitystä, mutta niiden tulee pohjautua luotettavaan tutkimustietoon. Tutkin väitöskirjassani ihmistoiminnan aiheuttamia paineita ja niiden vaikutuksia pohjoisen Itämeren mataliin merenpohjaympäristöihin. Tavoitteenani on parantaa näitä ympäristöjä kuvaavien alueellisten ihmistoimintaan kytkeytyvien paine- ja vaikutusarviointien laatua ja siten tukea matalien merenpohjaympäristöjen erityispiirteet huomioivaa rannikkosuunnittelua. Käytän tutkimuksissani monipuolisia paikkatietoaineistoja LiDAR –pistepilvistä yksittäisten lajien seurantaaineistoihin. Teen monen tyyppisiä maantieteellisiä analyyseja hyödyntäen ja yhdistellen erilaisia skenaariomenetelmiä, alueellisia paikkatietomalleja ja tilastollisia menetelmiä. Tutkimukseni tulokset osoittavat yhtäältä yksityiskohtaisten kaukokartoitusaineistojen, luokiteltujen biotooppiaineistojen ja erilaisten mallinnusmenetelmien arvon keskeisinä merenpohjien tilaa käsittelevän tiedon lähteinä, mutta tuovat esille myös niiden käyttöön liittyviä epävarmuuksia. Työssä tarkastelen erityisesti, miten avoimia tietolähteitä voidaan hyödyntää rannikon kestävän käytön suunnittelussa. Käytän myös mallinnusmenetelmiä ja lajitasoista seurantatietoa osoittaakseni rakkohaurujen (Fucus spp.) taantuneen laaja-alaisesti Suomen rannikkoalueilla. Väitöskirjani keskeisenä tuloksena on, että maantieteellinen lähestymistapa ja alueellinen työskentelymenetelmä vahvistavat rannikkoalueiden kestävää käyttöä ja suunnittelua tukevaa tietopohjaa. ASIASANAT: ihmistoiminnan paine, ihmistoiminnan vaikutus, merenpohjan yhteisöt, Itämeri, merialuesuunnittelu, rannikkosuunnittelu, levinneisyysmallinnu

Monitoring capabilities of a mobile mapping system based on navigation qualities

Mobile mapping systems are becoming increasingly popular as they can build 3D models of the environment rapidly by using a laser scanner that is integrated with a navigation system. 3D mobile mapping has been widely used for applications such as 3D city modelling and mapping of the scanned environments. However, accurate mapping relies on not only the scanner’s performance but also on the quality of the navigation results (accuracy and robustness) . This paper discusses the potentials of using 3D mobile mapping systems for landscape change detection, that is traditionally carried out by terrestrial laser scanners that can be accurately geo-referenced at a static location to produce highly accurate dense point clouds. Yet compared to conventional surveying using terrestrial laser scanners, several advantages of mobile mapping systems can be identified. A large area can be monitored in a relatively short period, which enables high repeat frequency monitoring without having to set-up dedicated stations. However, current mobile mapping applications are limited by the quality of navigation results, especially in different environments. The change detection ability of mobile mapping systems is therefore significantly affected by the quality of the navigation results. This paper presents some data collected for the purpose of monitoring from a mobile platform. The datasets are analysed to address current potentials and difficulties. The change detection results are also presented based on the collected dataset. Results indicate the potentials of change detection using a mobile mapping system and suggestions to enhance quality and robustness

Spatio-temporal analysis of coastal sediment erosion in Cape Town through remote sensing and geoinformation science

Coastal erosion can be described as the landward or seaward propagation of coastlines. Coastal processes occur over various space and time scales, limiting in-situ approaches of monitoring change. As such it is imperative to take advantage of multisensory, multi-scale and multi-temporal modern spatial technologies for multi-dimensional coastline change monitoring. The research presented here intends to showcase the synergy amongst remote sensing techniques by showcasing the use of coastal indicators towards shoreline assessment over the Kommetjie and Milnerton areas along the Cape Town coastline. There has been little progress in coastal studies in the Western Cape that encompass the diverse and dynamic aspects of coastal environments and in particular, sediment movement. Cape Town, in particular; is socioeconomically diverse and spatially segregated, with heavy dependence on its 240km of coastline. It faces sea level rise intensified by real-estate development close to the high-water mark and on reclaimed land. Spectral indices and classification techniques are explored to accommodate the complex bio-optical properties of coastal zones. This allows for the segmentation of land and ocean components to extract shorelines from multispectral Landsat imagery for a long term (1991-2021) shoreline assessment. The DSAS tool used these extracted shorelines to quantify shoreline change and was able to determine an overall averaged erosional rate of 2.56m/yr. for Kommetjie and 2.35m/yr. for Milnerton. Beach elevation modelling was also included to evaluate short term (2016-2021) sediment volumetric changes by applying Differential Interferometry to Sentinel-1 SLC data and the Waterline method through a combination of Sentinel -1 GRD and tide gauge data. The accuracy, validation and correction of these elevation models was conducted at the pixel level by comparison to an in-field RTK GPS survey used to capture the current state of the beaches. The results depict a sediment deficit in Kommetjie whilst accretion is prevalent along the Milnerton coastline. Shoreline propagation and coastal erosion quantification leads to a better understanding of geomorphology, hydrodynamic and land use influences on coastlines. This further informs climate adaptation strategies, urban planning and can support further development of interactive coastal information systems

The complexity of studying coasts: From forms and processes to management

Coastal environments are characterized by their high dynamism, related to the interaction between marine agents (winds, waves, currents, sea level changes) and continental forms and processes. The present article summarizes the main morphodynamic characteristics of coasts and the resulting environments. Different oscillations of the sea level are considered, depending on their amplitude and frequency: rapid eustatic fluctuations, energetic tsunamis, storm waves and surges, tides and good weather wind waves. Coastal environments are classified in low, sedimentary coasts, including beaches, dunes, barrier islands, lagoons, salt marshes and river mouths, and high, rocky coasts. Management of coastal zones needs a deep knowledge of all the processes involved at the littoral, especially at the local scale, since coastal processes vary rapidly alongshore. At present the integrated coastal management intends to involve different socioeconomic sectors interested in the occupation and use of coasts. Coastal management must include the adaptation of human activities to the natural processes and associated coastal hazards and the protection of coastal values, both of natural and historical-cultural character. Public administrations at different levels should consider the knowledge of the coastal processes at different scales and their potential interaction with human activities in order to design laws and regulations accordingly

Modelling of Spatial Big Data Analysis and Visualization

Today’s advanced survey tools open new approaches and opportunities for Geoscience researchers to create new Models, Systems and frameworks to support the lifecycle of special big data. Mobile Mapping Systems use LIDAR technology to provide efficient and accurate way to collect geographic features and its attribute from field, whichhelps city planning departments and surveyors to design and update city GIS maps with a high accuracy. It is not only about heterogenic increase in the volume of point cloud data, but also it refers to several other characteristics such as its velocity and variety. However,the vast amount of Point Cloud data gathered by Mobile Mapping Systemleads to new challenges for researches, innovation and business development to solve its five characters: Volume, Velocity, Variety, and Veracity then achievethe Value of SBD. Cloud Computing has provided a new paradigm to publish and consume new spatial models as a service plus big data utilities , services which can be utilized to overcome Point Cloud data analysis and visualization challenges. This paper presentsa model With Cloud-Based Spatial,big data Services,using spatial joinservices capabilities to relate the analysis results to its location on map,describe how Cloud Computing supports the visualizing and analyzing spatial big data and review the related scientific model’s examples