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New Topographic Survey Unit: 6aSU8-2 Beer
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As part of the Seaton Beach Management Plan, PCO have been asked by East Devon District Council to conduct regular topographic surveys at Beer, Devon. The unit has now been added to the regular schedule with surveys initially being undertaken by the PCO team. In order to undertake the work, two new E2 standard brass marker control points were installed overlooking the beach. These points will be used to conduct all future surveys. Details of these control points, as well as all the others around the SW coast can be found here.
The first interim survey took place on the 4th of February with data points collected along seven interim profile lines. Comparing this data against profiles extracted from previous LiDAR datasets it is clear to see the level of accretion that has occured throughout the unit. This backs up conversations that the PCO team had with members of the public, who told of how the prologed accretion was impacting the fishing fleet and tourism.
The next planned survey will be the topographic baseline, which will be conducted during the summer repeat baseline season. All of the data will be made available for download via the map viewer.
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Also on behalf of EDDC, PCO have undertaken a laser scan survey of the cliffs at Pennington Point, this time as part of the Sidmouth BMP. The cliffs at Pennington Point have experienced extreme levels of erosion, which is visible across all of the data types collected by the SWRCMP. PCO's current topographic monitoring includes profiles lines extending to the cliff toe, however laser scanning allows for data to be collected over the whole cliff face as well as the fronting beach.
The image on the left shows the laser scanner positioned in the boat park, opposite the cliffs, ready to start scanning. This provides a higher vantage point to scan the beach as well as two faces of the cliff. The image on the right is the resulting point cloud with imagery, collected simultaneously, rendered on top.
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PCO have recently been working on improving the website of the SWRCMP to provide more useful information to the end user. We have added interactive map viewers to each of the Data Types pages with shapefiles containing lots of useful information. We have also been trialing the upload of profile charts from the latest topographic surveys to the website to allow data to be viewed more immedietly after survey.
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Each of the survey types under the Our Data tab now has an interactive map. Navigate around the map and click on the shapefiles to find out information about the survey units such as which OS tiles they cover and which interim lines are surveyed. Visit these pages before downloading data from the map viewer to make sure you get the data you're after.
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We have also created a new Latest Data page with an interactive map. Click on the survey units to view profile charts from the latest topographic survey for that unit. Each of the survey units also includes the name of the *.txt file containing the data, which you can download from the website.
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We have also added a map viewer to the GPS Control Page showing the location of each of the control points. If you have an upcoming project, zoom to your area of interest, find out which points are in the area and note down the coordinates. You can also download all of the witness diagrams for further information on how to find the points and all of the technical information.
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There are also a number of new documents which may help when downloading data from the website. The Download Help Sheet provides details of the survey types and naming conventions found on the website, whilst the Survey Record is a spreadsheet of all the scheduled survey dates listed by survey unit. Check out these documents if you are thinking of downloading data from the website!
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Isles of Scilly OSTN15 Shift
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In a previous version of PCO news we announced that we were now using the OSTN15 grid shift. Initially it was decided not to convert the old data as the difference was within the survey specification. However after analysing the latest data from the Isles of Scilly, it was noticed that a clear offset existed between all the previous data, collected using OSTN02 and the newest data, in OSTN15. The example chart, above, shows a uniform offset along the whole profile with the 2017 data reaching MLWS aproximetely 80m further landwards than previously.
In order to combat this, there are now two versions of the Isles of Scilly data available for download. The old data has been converted to OSTN15, however the new data has not been converted back in to OSTN02. Depending on what the data is being used for, either may be appropriate.
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As the PCO team were heading back from their Christmas break, the south west was bracing for the impacts of the incoming storm Eleanor. The low pressure system swept across the north of England bringing stormy seas to the north coast of Cornwall and Devon. This, coupled with spring high tides led to some dramatic impacts which were the focus of much media attention. Cliffing of the dune systems at Crantock, Perranporth and Bude occured, with the first two sites recieving post-storm surveys to monitor the damage.
The two charts above show the effects of the storm on the north coast. Firstly the peak of the storm can be seen occuring on the 3rd of January with significant waves heights above 7m at the Perranporth Wave Buoy. At the Port Isaac tide gauge the storm surge can clearly be seen over both high tides on the day of the storm.
Breaking News!
At the time of writing the south west is currently baring the brunt from the combined forces of the "Beast From the East" and Storm Emma. A prolonged period of easterly winds has led to dramatic changes to many of the beaches in Start Bay, Tor Bay and the eastern side of the Lizard. This is currently reaching its peak with the coincidence of the storm force winds and spring high tides leading to increased risk of damage. Whilst much of the media attention has been focused on the freezing temperatures and road blockages, reports are coming in of damage to the road at Slapton, flooding at Beesands, Torquay, Porthallow and erosion of the car park at Maenporth.
PCO are expecting to have many calls for post-storm surveys over the coming days so make sure to keep up to date with our social media platforms to see the results of the surveys!
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Topographic Surveys
All of the 2017 autumn interim surveys were completed to schedule and quality checked by the PCO team. The data is now available for download from the map viewer.
Since the beginninging of January the PCO survey team, as well as our contractors, have been undertaking the 2018 spring interim surveys. So far all data collection is on schedule to finish by the end of the survey season on March 31st. Once the data has been quality checked it will be sent to the website to be made available for download. The profile charts will also be uploaded to the Latest Data page of the SWRCMP website for immediate viewing.
If you would like to know which survey units will be surveyed during each window, survey schedules covering all data types are available here.
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Aerial Photography
During the summer months our contractors were capturing the latest set of aerial photography for the start of Phase 3. Unfortunately due to poor flying and weather conditions it was impossible to capture the whole coast this flying season. Portland Bill - Start Point and the Isles of Scilly were captured in their entirety, along with a majority of north Cornwall. Once the data has been quality checked it will be made available via the website. The rest of the coast will be captured during the next flying window (Summer 2018).
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LiDAR Capture
Areas in red show the repeat LiDAR survey polygons which were captured last year. All of the required data was captured within the flying window and is now available for download from the map viewer.
There are currently no plans to capture any LiDAR this calendar year as the entirety of the coast will be captured during 2019.
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