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Issue: 66 | December 2021
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It was a pleasure to welcome our partners, colleagues and associates to our second Virtual Partners meeting this year. A summary can be found below, with links to the sessions if you weren’t able to make it on the day. This year also saw some of us venture out to selected in-person events, and we hope that, even amidst the current uncertainty, we will be able to see more of you in person next year.
I am delighted that we have had a new paper released, just a few days ago, authored by our own Thomas Dhoop on some events which led to flooding earlier this year. Read on for a summary and links to the open access manuscript.
We also are very pleased to be able to update on some bathymetry trials we mentioned in earlier newsletters, and update on the progress of our habitat mapping work, as well as all the ongoing hard work that the teams have been putting in to support the programme.
We do also need to highlight a short outage of the website after Christmas, to allow some essential electrical maintenance to the data centre which hosts us. See below for details – and please do get in touch if you have any questions.
But most of all, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and hope for a successful new year!
Charlie Thompson – Regional Co-Ordinator
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Disruption to Website Service
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The servers hosting the coastal monitoring website are undergoing maintenance between Monday the 27th of December and Thursday the 30th of December.
All systems, including data download and realtime data provision will be unavailable during this period and we encourage you to download any data you might want to work on during this period in advance.
We are working with our data management team and hydrodynamics contractor to continue forwarding realtime wave data to Cefas WaveNet, which you will be able to access from: https://wavenet.cefas.co.uk/Map.
We will update on this via twitter and the website itself once we can confirm functionality.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but if you have any questions, please get in touch with the team.
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Second Virtual Annual Partners Meeting
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Due to continued uncertainty around COVID, and following our success last year, it was decided to hold our annual partners meeting virtually again this year. The event was held on the 13th October, and chaired by Bryan Curtis, chair of the Southeast Coastal Group.
The first of three sessions, Project Progress, provided an update on the programme as a whole, new developments to the website and some more detail on the Hydrodynamic network given by Charlie Thompson, Sam Pitman and Thomas Dhoop from CCO.
The video from this session can be found here: Session 1
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Session 1 from the 2021 Southeast Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme Virtual Annual Review Meeting.
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Session two focussed on applications of, and for the coastal monitoring data, and included presentations by a range of partners and friends of the programme.
This included Dr Uwe Dornbusch (EA), who gave an insightful talk about inferring cliff erosion rates using comparisons between modern and historic maps.
Dominique Townsend (University of Southampton) discussed how foreshore lowering at the intensively-monitored Pevensey Bay is being investigated using a combination of X-band radar, a benthic array, and rapid shallow surveys, as well as discussing challenges in defining the ‘depth of closure’.
Maritsa Harry (Coastal Protection Unit, Trinidad and Tobego) offered insight into the work that’s been happening to develop a comprehensive national coastal monitoring programme in Trinidad and Tobago and how they are putting into practice techniques to go about this.
Sacha Neill (Coastal Partners) offered an insight into the Hurst spit tracer study which aims to offer a greater understanding of the dynamics of the spit through tracer pebbles. This study shows the opportunities and limitations of tracer pebbles and also an insight into what is happening to Hurst spit over time.
Following this, a talk by Lucinda Robinson (MMO) offered insight into what the Marine Planning the Marine Management Organisation do and the services that they provide with a focus on the future and sustainable development.
Adam Baker Gooderson (Canterbury City Council) then offered an awareness into the free software packages that are available to view and analyse CCO monitoring data. Adam covered programmes such as QGIS, SANDS free, poinTools and CoastalTools.
The last talk of the morning was hosted by Christine Sams and Clive Neil (NOC). Christine offered an insinsight into the work they have been doing as part of the BLUEco project, looking at intertidal topography in coastal zones from space using satellite technology. Showing their aim of collaborating with the research community to develop practical solutions.
The recordings from this session can be found here: Session 2
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Session 2 from the 2021 Southeast Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme Virtual Annual Review Meeting.
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The final session of the event consisted of two concurrent discussion workshops: Working Towards a National Coastal Defence Asset Register was led by Dr Charlie Thompson, and explored topics relating to asset data collection, in particular, different experiences and challenges with the use of asset database softwares, as well as issues related to asset data accessibility; The Use of Coastal Monitoring Data to Support Business Cases was led by Claire French (CCC) and delved into various ways coastal monitoring data is and can be used in beach management, emergency planning and response, as well as its use in informing business cases.
Over 70 partners were able to join us for the sessions, in what was another highly successful virtual event, although we do hope everyone will be able to join us in person next year.
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Charlie was privileged to present the work of CCO and the NNRCMP at Ocean Business which was held in October at the National Oceanography Centre. This was part of a new free conference programme organised for the event, and Charlie presented during a session on Coastal Management, along with Ruth Adams from the Southwest RCMP, and Harry Cook from Argans UK.
It was a great opportunity to appear in person for the first time in over a year, and a stimulating session.
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Charlie Thompson presenting at Ocean Business in 2021. Copyright: New Forest District Council
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New paper: Swell wave progression in the English Channel: implications for coastal monitoring
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Earlier in 2021, the Channel Coastal Observatory studied two energetic swell events, neither of which were predicted by modelled flood forecasts, which occurred in quick succession in the English Channel. The first event, on 30 January 2021, produced moderate significant wave heights at or just below the 0.25 year return period along the southwest English coast, but combined with significant swell caused overtopping at East Beach in West Bay and at Chesil Beach. The second event, on 1 February 2021, generated the highest wave energy periods measured at many locations along the southern English coastline and, at High Water, caused overtopping at Hayling Island.
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Construction plant is deployed at Hayling Island for emergency repairs to the beach after the 1st February 2021 swell event. Copyright: Havant Borough Council.
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In the study, the meteorological drivers for both swell events are described and the resulting swell waves are tracked as they progressed through the English Channel. Their impact at different locations along the English coastline is mapped using a spatial footprint approach which is informed by a joint return period analysis of water level and one of three wave parameters: significant wave height Hs, and the less commonly used parameters energy period Te and wave power P.
We find great benefit in using Te and P to better describe the waves that caused physical changes to beaches. Te because the parameter captures the long-period energy in swell waves, while being less subject to rapid changes than Tp. P because the parameter accounts for wave height and wave period in a single variable, which is particularly useful when a swell event is combined with locally generated wind-waves.
Te and P also show potential for threshold-setting and therefore coastal monitoring purposes. As a result of our study, we are planning to introduce real-time data provision of both parameters on the real-time data pages of the coastal monitoring website.
The paper reporting on the study, which discusses the coastal monitoring implications in much more detail, was recently published open access in Anthropocene Coasts and is available to all:
Dhoop, T. and Thompson, C. 2021. Swell wave progression in the English Channel: implications for coastal monitoring. Anthropocene Coasts 4.1: 281-305.
Finally, the study and resulting paper is very much the outcome of a collaborative effort and would not have been possible without the input from the Coastal Partners, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP), the Environment Agency, Jacobs and Fugro.
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Norbit Multibeam Trial Completion
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Earlier this year, CCO conducted a series of multibeam surveys in the West Solent to trial the Norbit iWBMS multibeam echosounder system and it’s accompanying software, on our survey vessel Zephyr, with the view of expanding our survey capabilities to include in-house multibeam surveys. You can read about this in Issue 64 of the newsletter. The trial was very beneficial; we gained experience using the system and its software, as well as the Qinsy and Qimera data acquisition and processing packages from QPS.
The data collected has been fully processed, and has produced some great results. Qimera was used to clean the data. There was a significant amount of cleaning needed, particularly in shallow areas approaching the beach, however the iWBMS echosounder, with its wide angle swath and the ability to redirect its 512 beams towards the horizontal, performed excellently. The shallow water and some choppy conditions meant we didn’t quite reach 100% coverage in the west Solent, but we plan to backfill the gaps in the future.
Data was collected from Milford-on-sea, one of our regular survey locations, North Point, Hurst spit, and Lymington Marshes in the West Solent. The data from Milford matched our archived data measured during topographic surveys and singlebeam echosounder surveys, which we used to check our acquisition method and setup were correct. Along Hurst spit, some unidentified objects were recorded which match the description of dredging pipes lost overboard during a beach replenishment scheme in the 1990’s. A larger area was covered between the Lymington river mouth and the Pennington outfall in the West Solent, detailing relict salt marshes never before mapped. Reports and data for all the surveys will be available on the NNRCMP website in the new year.
Overall, the trial was a success, and we are looking to expand our capabilities to achieve 100% seabed coverage on our regular hydrographic survey locations and continue mapping the uncharted areas around the Solent.
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Cleaned bathymetry of relict Salt marshes between the Lymington River and Pennington Outfall in the West Solent. Copyright: New Forest District Council
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Cleaned bathymetry of North Point spit at the mouth of the Keyhaven River. Copyright: New Forest District Council
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Southeast Habitat Mapping
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In the June newsletter (Issue 64) we reported that the SE Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme had gone out to tender for the habitat mapping of the 2019/20 Aerial Photography. Environment Systems successfully bid for the work and have spent the last 8 months mapping the SE frontage working East from Portland Bill.
As part of the contract a change analysis was undertaken between the 2013 and 2019 datasets. Although many of the intertidal and tidal fringe habitats can be expected to be highly dynamic and characterised by substantial changes in extent over time, some notable changes since 2013 include an overall increase in the extent of reedbed habitat (EM11) of 114.8ha, and an increase in saltmarsh (LS3) of 55.2 ha.
The final deliverables are presently in the last stages of QC meaning that the new dataset will be available on the NNRCMP website in the New Year.
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Example of change in cliff (SR0 - Grey) and intertidal underboulder (LR4 - Orange) habitat distribution between 2013 (left) and 2019 (right) overlain on the 2019 photography. Copyright: New Forest District Council
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Worthing Borough Council Update
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We completed our autumn interim surveys at the end of October and have been very busy processing all of the data produced. Surveys were completed smoothly and gave us a chance to test the use of our UAV in conjunction with laser scanner data collected on our ATVs. At the time of writing all processing is complete and being sent off for QA with analysis almost complete too.
Thanks to the favourable weather we’ve been able to have weekly UAV surveys of Pagham Spit to closely monitor the recent breach. Processing of this data is ongoing but signs of evolution have been noted with each visit as the below photos show.
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UAV photo of the Pagham Spit Breach on 08/11/21. Copyright: Worthing Borough Council
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UAV photo of the Pagham Spit Breach on 15/12/21. Copyright: Worthing Borough Council
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Canterbury City Council working with Worthing & Adur Borough Council, the EA, Rye Harbour Master office and Fugro, Have moved the R9s base station from Hastings and configured it on the Rye Harbour Office. This has now closed the gap along the South East coastline to form a network of continually operating reference stations to cover from the Isle of Sheppey all the way to Portsmouth. This will help to improve the efficiency of surveying for the Canterbury survey teams as they will no longer have to set up an onsite base station for each survey now covered by the Rye Base!
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The South East Network of base stations. Copyright: Canterbury City Council
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The station is now fully operational, ready for the spring 2022 surveys, with 1-second hourly and 15-second daily RINEX data available to download at the link below.
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Canterbury City Council Update
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North Kent Post Storms, November 2021
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The Canterbury team undertook a series of post storm surveys following a high level of wave activity recorded on the Herne Bay step gauge which exceeded the storm threshold on two consecutive tides; 27/11/2021 and 28/11/2021. The highest water level was observed on 27/11/2021 (+2.32mAOD at 05:10). The highest wave height (Hs) was 0.88m.
A quick walkover determined where the storm had the most impact and photographs were taken across the whole of the North Kent frontage, then a selection of topographic profiles from three units were surveyed in order to obtain data; including profiles at 4aSU08 – Seasalter, 4aSU12 – Herne Bay and 4aSU14 – Northern Sea Wall. Continuous data was also captured at 4aSU10 - Tankerton, focusing on the 300m stretch at the eastern boundary of the survey unit (known as Long Rock) to survey the current position of the mouth of the Swalecliffe Brook, which was blocked by shingle and can therefore pose a flood risk further upstream.
Post storm analysis revealed that there had been some losses of material from the main beach face and cliffing of the crests along the majority of profiles surveyed. A timber groyne at the boundary between Tankerton and Swalecliffe has been outflanked and wire mattress exposed. Furthermore, at Herne Bay shingle has been pushed up from the main beach and deposited on the promenade.
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Outflanking of the timber groyne and exposure of the wire mattress at Long Rock, Tankerton. Copyright: Canterbury City Council
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Shingle on the promenade and blocking the ramp at Herne Bay. Copyright: Canterbury City Council
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Brooksend outfall located at Northern Sea wall had also been blocked, with some minor damage to the valve door, which was reported to the EA and has had emergency works to unblock and repair the outfall so that it can continue to effectively outlet water from the marshland behind.
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Blocked outfall and damaged valve door at Northern Sea Wall. Copyright: Canterbury City Council
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A visit to the Geobusiness conference in London
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We visited the Geobusiness conference held at the ExCel centre in London on the 24th – 25th November 2021. Over the two days the team was able to attend various different presentations and stalls to learn about new and existing surveying technologies from a variety of companies. The day was also extremely useful for gaining new contacts and since visiting we have arranged for several exciting demonstrations of new survey equipment!
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Debbie at the Geobusiness Conference. Copyright: Canterbury City Council
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Finally, we would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all from the Canterbury Team!
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The past few months we have been heavily involved with the Southsea Coastal Scheme which is the UK's largest local authority-led coastal defence project. The work has involved many different elements and the team’s expertise has been put to the test!
This high-profile project will affect thousands of homes, businesses and historic structures when it is completed, and we have been providing up-to-date aerial imagery to help monitoring as it takes shape. We have also been providing a continuous supply of geo-data to help with mapping and ensure accuracy at critical design and build stages.
This phase of the project has also recently uncovered a 17th century historic wall, a very exciting find! We have been laser scanning this (see picture) with the Leica Geosystems scanner to create a point cloud for future design works.
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Laser scanning history in Southsea. Copyright: Coastal Partners.
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The next phase of the project will see defences being constructed alongside and around Southsea Castle. The works here will be particularly important as not only is the castle a famous piece of English heritage – it is said to have been designed by King Henry VIII - but also the existing sea defences are home to endangered purple sandpiper birds. To aid this phase we have created UAV 3D mapping and a 3D point cloud. View a two minute snippet of the fly-through below.
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Southsea Castle Point Cloud Fly Through. Copyright: Coastal Partners.
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Southeast Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme
Area Representatives
Isle of Grain to Beachy Head
Claire French, Canterbury City Council, coastalmonitoring@canterbury.gov.uk
01227 862537
Beachy Head to Selsey Bill
Dan Amos, Adur & Worthing Councils, coastalmonitoring@adur-worthing.gov.uk
01903 221376
Selsey Bill to Portland Bill
Stuart McVey, New Forest District Council, stuart.mcvey@noc.soton.ac.uk
023 8059 8641
Channel Coastal Observatory
CCO@channelcoast.org
023 8059 8467
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