Advancing Coastal Monitoring: Satellite Solutions for Erosion and Shoreline Management Across Europe – The ESA Coastal Erosion Project

Coastal areas, experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth, are among the most dynamically changing regions on Earth. These zones face increasing risks from storms and rising sea levels, posing significant challenges for sustainable shoreline management. Traditional coastal monitoring, though accurate, is costly and time-consuming, often covering limited areas or requiring substantial processing time, which is impractical for authorities needing quick, actionable insights. Technologies like DGPS, UAV photogrammetry, and LIDAR have been employed, but they struggle to meet the frequency and scale needed for effective large-scale monitoring.

In response, the Space for Shore consortium, under the European Space Agency’s Coastal Erosion Project and led by i-Sea, leverages satellite imagery to offer an affordable and expansive solution. The project developed and deployed prototype monitoring tools along more than 5000 km of coastline, covering diverse European coastal environments. By using 25 years of data from the Copernicus program and other satellite missions, this approach captures and analyzes long-term erosion patterns and episodic erosion events across a range of coastal dynamics, from nearshore to inland regions.

Addressing the non-linear and regionally varied nature of coastal erosion, Space for Shore uses high-resolution optical and SAR satellite imagery to generate key indicators like waterlines, beach widths, dune positions, and seaward vegetation edges. This data is used to map changes with tailored temporal frequencies, from monthly to annual, to match local environmental rhythms, assessing both gradual erosion trends and immediate impacts from events like storms or fires. The study spans regions across France, Germany, Greece, Romania, Portugal, and Norway (including Svalbard Archipelago).

The key findings indicate significant coastal retreat across various locations. In the Danube Delta, up to 330 meters of shoreline have been lost over the past 30 years. France's Cotentin Coast has experienced rapid dune erosion following Storm Eleanor. Greece’s Evia Island has also suffered erosion after recent wildfires, while the Svalbard Archipelago shows marked glacier front retreat likely linked to climate change. Additionally, popular tourist destinations like Portugal’s coastline and Germany’s Sylt Island have seen shorelines recede by several tens of meters in recent years.

The project aims to provide an end-user-focused, validated set of tools and data for European coastal managers, ultimately supporting evidence-based planning and a multi-criteria classification of vulnerability to coastal erosion. The collaboration between remote sensing experts and over 60 stakeholders from government, academia, and industry emphasizes the initiative’s practical value in ongoing coastal management efforts.