CoastSnap community beach monitoring: new innovations in smartphone-based monitoring of the coast

CoastSnap is a low-cost citizen science beach monitoring program that empowers local communities to collect quantitative measurements of coastline change using their smartphones. Underpinning CoastSnap is a stainless-steel smartphone cradle that is installed overlooking a beach in a location easily accessible to the public. Using the cradle for image positioning, passers-by simply take a photo of the coast and upload it to a centralized database, which in turn provides a crowd-sourced record of coastline change over time.

Behind this simple idea are advanced image processing algorithms that then enable the shoreline position (and other relevant coastal features) to be mapped from these community snapshots in a scientifically rigorous manner. First established in Sydney, Australia in May 2017, the network of CoastSnap stations has grown rapidly over the past seven years to now encompass over 350 monitoring locations in 31 countries. This growth of this global network now means that the CoastSnap project comprises the largest coordinated network of coastal monitoring worldwide.

The poster will provide a general overview of this unique global citizen science program to date and present latest developments regarding enhanced automation using AI, participation and new research outcomes.