What is CoastSnap?

CoastSnap is a global “Citizen Science” project that aims to engage citizens to participate in scientific research on the accretion and erosion of various beaches. For this purpose, the project provides specially designed holders at fixed “CoastSnap locations” where passers-by can place their smartphones in to take a picture of the beach. All of these photos will be collected in one large set, which will be used by researchers to map the growth of the beach. There are two stations along the Belgian coastline, located in Ostend and Koksijde. The beaches on this location are subject to many factors that affect accretion, and CoastSnap can contribute to a better understanding of how exactly the beach responds to all those influences.

Help monitor the beaches

Research on the progress or decline of beaches I nothing new, also not in Belgium. Already there are several methodologies that use cameras and other remote sensing technologies. However, these setups not only require significant funding, but also ongoing maintenance and the technical knowledge to set them up. CoastSnap wants to eliminate this by using the local community and the present tourism to capture the same images. The only installation necessary is a holder for smartphones that ensures that all pictures are taken from the same angle and position.

The participation of passers-by at the station is of great importance. The more people take a photo and share it with the project, the larger the data set that will be used, and the better researchers can map the changes on the beach.

Belgian beaches keep constantly changing

Anyone who walks along the beaches has certainly noticed: our beaches are constantly evolving under the influence of the seasons, sea currents and human interventions. They are built up during the summer and decrease again in the winter, in the latter case often by storms that cause the so-called ‘beach cliffs’. On top of this, human constructions have an additional influence on them. For instance, the beach at Oostende Oosteroever, where the first Belgian CoastSnap station is located, is strongly influenced by the nearby harbor walls and the presence of a dike over the entire width of the beach. This beach section, and many others along the Belgian coast, are therefore artificially re-injected to compensate these effects.

In order to be able to map how all this affects our beaches, or how we can make our beaches more resistant to it, scientists would like to study the evolutions. A series of images showing exactly the same part of the beach can be used by researchers to calculate, for example, the location of the low tide line, or to study the formation of beach cliffs.