Using Citizen Science to Collect Coastal Monitoring Data

Coastal monitoring is becoming increasingly important as coastal hazard risks increase due to factors such as climate change. Traditional survey methods are often expensive and require technical skills and special equipment which restricts the amount of data that can reasonably be collected. Results from two citizen science projects are presented to assess what data can be extracted from imagery collected by the public. Schemes which incorporate members of the public in the data collection phase of a project offer the opportunity to engage local groups/communities with important coastal issues, while collecting valuable scientific data which can be used by coastal managers to assess the vulnerability of the coast to coastal hazards.