Integrating Earth Observation and Modelling for Blue Carbon and Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring

Coastal zones host some of the planet’s most biodiverse and productive ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes, “blue carbon” habitats that provide essential ecosystem services such as shoreline protection, fisheries support, and substantial carbon sequestration. Yet these ecosystems are under increasing pressure from climate change, sea-level rise, pollution, and habitat degradation. Effective biodiversity monitoring and management therefore require approaches that integrate ecological processes with the complex physical dynamics of coastal environments.

The COASTS (Coastal Observation Advances Leveraging Space Technology Services) project addresses this challenge by combining multi-scale Earth observation (EO) data, advanced modelling, and process-based morphodynamic simulations to map, model, and monitor coastal biodiversity and blue carbon ecosystem dynamics. COASTS brings together European partners to close knowledge gaps through the integration of EO, ecological surveying, and digital analysis tools. Working closely with local stakeholders at three pilot sites in Germany, Jersey/Chausey, and the Maldives, the project co-designs fit-for-purpose solutions tailored to regional management needs.

A central goal of COASTS is the development of a downstream service that leverages Copernicus Marine data and other EO initiatives to provide decision-ready environmental information. This includes spatial-temporal mapping of blue carbon habitats, assessments of ecosystem services, and quantification of coastal resilience functions such as erosion protection. The project further examines how EO-derived indicators can support identify priority areas for restoration and conservation.

A key component of COASTS is its nested hydro-morphodynamic modelling framework, which captures coastal processes across scales relevant to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The workflow downscales Copernicus Marine global or regional data to local, high-resolution simulations through a sequence of nested models. Delft3D Flexible Mesh (FM) provides detailed hydrodynamics and wave–flow interactions, incorporating bathymetry, seabed roughness, wind forcing and sediment transport. These outputs drive site-specific XBeach models that resolve nearshore morphodynamics, sediment exchange and storm-driven change at meter-scale resolution. Using satellite-derived bathymetry, seabed classification, ERA5 winds and CMEMS ocean products, this modelling chain reconstructs past coastal behaviour and generates future scenarios relevant for habitat stability, erosion risk and blue carbon ecosystem resilience.

The project will deliver a web-based decision-support tool enabling stakeholders to visualise, analyse, and report on coastal ecosystem dynamics.