Lead institution:
University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) Australia – Australia
CoastSnap is a low-cost community beach monitoring technology that transforms smartphones into powerful coastal monitoring devices.
Individuals worldwide contribute to this initiative by capturing and uploading beach photos, creating a vast, continually updated database. Using innovative photo-point cradles and advanced image processing, smartphones become precise tools for monitoring beach dynamics. This allows communities to develop accurate records of beach erosion and recovery under varying ocean conditions, comparable in accuracy to professional GPS surveys. This Decade Action aims to further leverage this wealth of data to help coastal communities understand and manage shoreline changes over time including impacts from rising sea levels and extreme events. By involving the community in data collection, CoastSnap provides valuable coastal monitoring insights, fosters public education on dynamic coastlines, and supports collaborative management and informed decision-making.
Start Date: 01/01/2025
End Date: 31/12/2030
Lead Contact: Mitchell Harley (m.harley@unsw.edu.au)