Morphological Trends of the Belgian Coast Shown by 10 Years of Remote-Sensing Based Surveying P
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Morphological Trends of the Belgian Coast shown by 10 Years of Remote-Sensing based Surveying P. De Wolf', D. Fransaer2, J. van Sieleghem2, R. Houthuys3 Abstract The morphological evolution of foreshore, backshore, and adjoining dunes of the entire Belgian coast is surveyed by means of aerial remote sensing on a yearly basis since 1983. The evolution over this 10-year period is comprehensively illustrated by the land- and seaward shifts of the low-water line, high-water line and dune foot. It appears that nearly all major displacements are linked to human interactions, such as beach nourishments, groyne construction, etc. If these are left out of consideration, the main trend of the coastline evolution would be a landward retreat. Since 1986, the results of the bathymetric B E AS AC® measurements of the nearshore are linked to the aerial remote sensing surveys. The combination of these two observation techniques has proved very effective for the monitoring and understanding of coastal morphodynamic processes. Introduction The Belgian coast is situated along the smooth, sandy southeastern shores of the southern bight of the North Sea. The morphological behaviour of this type of coast is the result of a dynamic equilibrium, determined by winds, waves, and tides. Changes in the boundary conditions, either natural or man-induced, will cause a response in this behaviour. Adequate monitoring is therefore very important for a rational management of the coast. The morphological evolution of foreshore, backshore, and adjoining dunes of the Belgian coast is surveyed by means of aerial remote sensing on a yearly basis since 1983. For a profound understanding of the coastal morphological processes it is however necessary that the nearshore be included in the regular surveys. In Belgium, the nearshore of the coastal stretches subject to erosion is very efficiently and accurately surveyed by means of the hydrographic BEASAC® hovercraft4 since August 1985. The results of these bathymetric measurements are routinely linked to 1 Senior Engineer, Service of Coastal Harbours, Vrijhavenstraat 3, B8400 Oostende, Belgium 2 Project Leader, Eurosense Belfotop N.V., Nervierslaan 54, B1780 Wemmel, Belgium 3 Project Engineer, Eurosense Belfotop N.V. 4 BEASAC®: Belfotop Eurosense Acoustic-Sounding Air Cushion 245 246 SOUTHERN NORTH SEA COASTLINES the aerial remote sensing surveys to produce charts and volume data that cover the whole area from dunes to sea bottom. This paper briefly describes the observation methods and the processing of the measurements. An account is given of the morphological changes that have been observed on foreshore and backshore since 1983. Results of the integrated beach and nearshore morphological monitoring are presented as a case study of the behaviour east of Zeebrugge harbour since 1986. Remote-sensing based surveying of beach and nearshore morphology The monitoring programme for the 65 km long Belgian coast combines two different observation techniques. One technique is based on aerial remote sensing; the other consists of bathymetric surveying by hovercraft Aerial remote sensing Yearly, a survey flight is carried out in spring over the entire coast; additional recordings are performed in autumn for the most threatened parts of the coast (Kerckaert et al., 1989). The photo flight with a specially equipped aircraft takes place at low tide. The aircraft is a twin-prop offering optimal stability for data acquisition operations at low altitudes. The entire beach and dune foot is stereoscopically covered using a Forward Motion Compensated (FMC) aerial photogrammetric camera. The FMC camera allows large aperture times, thus establishing sufficient detail even when modest light conditions occur during the flight. The low flight altitude (440 m) is important to measure heights with adequate precision. The planimetry and altimetry of the entire Belgian beach and dune foot area, together with some 5 km of the Dutch coast, are stereophotogrammetrically digitized after each flight The benefits of a survey method based on aerial remote sensing are obvious. The method is very fast, giving an instantaneous recording of the present situation. The precision in height and positioning is excellent over so vast an area characterized by a continuously changing morphology. Moreover, the method is not labour intensive and thus cost-efficient To facilitate plotting of height difference maps and the calculation of volume differences, etc., a digital terrain model (DTM) is established. A DTM is a numerical description of the terrain elevation, relating to a particular survey. It is essentially an enumeration of height values, geographically arranged in a rectangular or square grid. The unit distance between two adjacent DTM points determines the resolution of terrain coverage. The unit grid distance is selected in function of the detail required. In order to support the foreshore and dune DTM, a sufficiently large number of over 200 height points per ha is stereophotogrammetrically digitized. BEASAC* acoustic depth soundings The development of the BEASAC* hovercraft-based hydrographic system was undertaken by Eurosense in the early 1980s, with a special grant of the Belgian authorities (at present : the Ministry of the Flemish Community, Administration of Waterinfrastructure and Maritime Affairs). The system has been operational and cleared for the production of official nautical charts since 1985 (Maes, 1985; Kerckaert et aí., 1989). REMOTE-SENSING BASED SURVEYING 247 The advantages of employing a hovercraft platform in hydrography are numerous: fast operational speed, ability to measure in very shallow areas and high ma noeuvrability and stability. The problems that had to be overcome during the development of the system mainly relate to the high rate of data acquisition, which is inherent to the high operational speed; the improvement and integration of positioning data; and the design of a system to compensate for the movements of the craft (De Putter et al., 1992). The BEASAC® system integrates a sufficient number of redundant sensor data to improve positioning and to correct depth measurements. Some of the corrections, including positioning and filtering of the raw depth data, are carried out in real time. Other corrections are performed at Eurosense’s Zeebrugge data processing centre. The most important of these post-survey corrections is the tidal reduction, using the M2 method. For soundings in the nearshore, use is made of simultaneous tide measurements performed on-purpose. The tidal range at the Belgian coast is 4 to 5 metres, while the overall beach slope is gentle (1-2 %). As the aerial remote sensing recordings are performed at low tide, and the bathymetric BEASAC* soundings take place around the same day, but at high tide, an overlap in data is achieved in a strip of some 150 to 300 m wide. In this overlap zone, the deviations in terrain height between the two methods are less than 10 cm, and the height data obtained by the two survey methods can thus without difficulties be joined in an integrated data set. From this combined data set, again a DTM is established, that covers the coastal relief in a 1.5 km wide strip stretching from the dune crest down to the sea floor. Analysis of the coastal morphological evolution The evolution between a given survey and an earlier reference survey is obtained by calculating the difference DTM. Its map representations, in which height differences are colour coded, make the study of erosion and accretion patterns very easy. The volume of accretion or erosion can also be derived from the difference DTM with very good precision. For the purpose of the monitoring programme, the Belgian coast has been divided into some 280 sections. The average section width is 250 m in a coast parallel direction. A section often coincides with the area between two groynes. Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a typical section. It illustrates how dune, backshore, foreshore, nearshore, and sea bottom are defined along the Belgian coast After each survey, the volumes of the different areas shown in the figure are calculated. Analyses of the evolution in time of these areas are thus easy to perform. In several sections, it was found that volume changes (either due to accretion or erosion) are an almost linear function of time. In order to quantify this change, the mean annual rate of erosion or accretion per metre coast length is calculated for each section using a linear regression on the data of all the surveys. The regression fit, as expressed by the regression coefficient, allows to evaluate the reliability of the calculated accretion and erosion rates. A high regression coefficient means that there is a good fit between the calculated trend and the survey data. 248 SOUTHERN NORTH SEA COASTLINES •DUNE AREA VOLUME OF DUNE FOOT (OF) UNE DUNE AREA BEACH AREA - -•BACKSHORE AREA VOLUME + 7.00 - ç j BACKSHORE + OF BACKSHORE — -•HIGHWATER IHW) UNE FORESHORE AREA AREA + 4 jo . VOLUME OF ^ FORESHORE AREA* »FORESHORE AREA -•LOW WATER (LW) LINE •NEARSHORE AREA - 10.0 0 - 0 m .NEARSHORE FOOT INF) LINE VOLUME OF NEARSHORE SEABED AREA AREA VOLUME SEABED CUT-OFF OF SEABED PLANE AREA Figure 1: Definition of dune, backshore, foreshore, nearshore, and sea bed by height planes in a beach section. Heights in m above Z (= MLLWS). Morphological evolution of the beaches and the dune foot between spring 1983 and spring 1992 The evolution of foreshore, backshore and adjacent dunes over the period from spring 1983 to spring 1992 can well be illustrated by showing the shift with time of the "beach lines" : the low-water line (LW), the high-water line (HW) and the dune foot (DF). These lines are height contour lines as defined in fig. 1. Their shifts are given in the lower half of figs. 3, A-E (see fig. 2.1 for the situation of the different coast stretches). The lower half of fig. 3, A-E, is actually a map representation of the three beach lines, showing both their 1983 and 1992 position.