Strategic Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme for the South-East

The programme began in August 2002. At present, 31 Local Authority and Environment Agency partners are involved. Its primary aim is to provide a repeatable and cost effective method of monitoring the coastline between the Isle of Grain on the North Kent coast and the Bristol Channel. All data collected by the Monitoring Programme are managed and archived at the Channel Coast Observatory in Southampton.

The project provides essential information for coastal managers. Issues such as climate change and provision of sea defences that are sustainable in the long term, are reliant on good quality data. Long-term data sets (several decades) are needed to deliver these benefits. Nevertheless, there are many short-term gains already arising from the programme. These include data for scheme designs, and savings arising from collaborative working.

Many coastal defence schemes within the southeast region now involve solutions such as beach recharge and beach recycling. Whilst these techniques are sustainable, they require a considerable amount of monitoring, to ensure they function effectively.

The programme involves a number of monitoring methods, including:

· Topographic Beach Surveys (cross sections/plan views of the beaches)
· Hydrodynamic Data Collection (waves and tides)

Several topographic survey programmes are carried out annually by Local Authority in house survey teams, such as the Planning and Monitoring team at the Council. Survey grade Global Positioning System (GPS) techniques aid this process. This gives centimetre accuracy for monitoring beach levels. 





We are responsible for monitoring the beach between the Isle of Grain and Beachy Head.
Profile surveys are conducted each Spring and Autumn, where a series of repeatable lines are surveyed to create cross sectional diagrams of the beach as it changes.

In the Summer, continuous topographic surveys are carried out to allow plan views of the beaches to be obtained and subsequently analysed with the aid of Digital Ground Models. From this data, annual comparisons of these diagrams are presented in reports, in the form of difference models. These show erosion and accretion to the beaches.

If required, post storm surveys are also carried out after a storm event to detect the extent of any damage that may have been caused by storm waves.

All data collected by the Strategic Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme are freely available, and are displayed on the project website: www.channelcoast.org

Although most of our time is spent on coastal monitoring, we have periods where we are not using the GPS equipment. As a result, we have been able to carry out numerous additional surveys for a number of other council departments, including boundary disputes, large scale subsidence surveys, and plotting pipeline routes.

The major advantage of the GPS equipment is the ease of which large numbers of points can be recorded to centimetre accuracy. Point data can then be presented in various forms; typically overlain onto Ordnance Survey mapping. Precise coordinates of each point can be provided.

If you have any surveys that need to be carried out and think we may be able to help, please contact matthew.mills@canterbury.gov.uk ex 2401.