Citizen scientist drone pilots to monitor coastal erosion

Researchers recruiting local drone pilots to capture SA town's erosion In short: The District Council of Robe has called for interested locals to fly drones to help measure erosion. Flinders University hopes the data will help Robe and other communities adapt and plan for future sand losses. What's next? Participants will gather data monthly, and before and after storms, over a two-year period. As regional communities try to comprehend the challenge they face from coastal erosion, researchers are recruiting citizen scientists to fly drones and measure changes. The District Council of Robe has called for expressions of interest for a project working with Flinders University, with low-cost drones and training to be supplied to participants. Flinders University associate professor Graziela Miot da Silva is a coastal geomorphologist and oceanographer. She said the work was a new initiative of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) aimed at increasing the observation of coastal erosion around Australia. "We're trying to get community members involved so we can cover more coastline, more area, and also a greater number of storm events," she said. "We are asking people to go once a month during the two years, and also keep an eye on storm events. "Then they just go back to the beach after the storm events to measure the change." An ever-changing coastline District Council of Robe CEO Nat Traeger said there was strong community interest in understanding how erosion is progressing. "Our coastline is vulnerable, it's eroding fast,"she said. "We need as much data and help as we can get to help inform future grants and adaptation pathways." Ms Traeger said while the council had a drone and did its own imagery, a wider and more consistent project to monitor the coast was useful. "To have the opportunity to have a scheduled, structured process that includes community volunteers will bolster our resources," she said. "We had a cliff collapse last year, and the obelisk is a strong point of interest. "Fox and Hoopers [beaches] have properties near them, and particularly at Hoopers we do have properties at risk there." While members of the public would gather the information, experts would analyse it and calculate the changes to the shoreline and sand volume. "That kind of information we're hoping can inform councils and coastal managers on the best strategies to manage the coast," Dr Miot da Silva said. "In some locations, the best strategy could be sand replenishment. Other strategies could be retreat or adapt. "With that kind of baseline information, we're hoping to give the decision-makers the information they need to make the best decisions for their councils." She said anyone interested could be involved, and that the research team would inform participants when storm events were forecast. Banding together for nature Local woman Tina van Nispen was among those keen to be involved with the project. She said as a nature lover she had noticed how erosion had impacted the movement of sand over the years. "You can only hope we can protect and love the environment that we're in so we can all flourish together,"she said. Having never used a drone before, Ms van Nispen said she was keen to see from above how erosion was shaping the coastline. "I've walked a lot of the beaches, but that's the only way I notice it," she said. "That's why I've jumped at this chance." She hoped the visual data from the drones could also be used to monitor things like seagrass movement. "There are so many applications with a drone," she said. "We could just be scratching the surface." Scope for expansion Dr Miot da Silva said other parts of the South Australian coastline would also be monitored. "If there's any other councils interested in the project, we are happy to hear from everybody," she said. "We chose Robe and a few other councils that already have some coastal data in place and other projects that we have already been doing with them, but it's not exclusive." If the pilot project is successful, Dr Miot da Silva said it could be rolled out more widely. "In Victoria they have already done a study similar to what we are trying to apply to Robe, which is using citizen science to give us information about storm impacts and coastal erosion," she said. "We're trying to apply this model that has already been tested and been successful to sites in South Australia. "If we see the same sort of success they had in Victoria, we're hoping to then expand to other sites as well."