Remote sensing and GIS for Coastal Zone

Invited lecture covers several problems of Remote Sensing applications on Coastal Zone. Coastal Zone includes waters and adjacent shores of coastal lands as well as islands, transitional and inter tidal areas. salt marshes, wetlands, and beaches. Discussion around several useful definitions of Coastal Zone helps to understand the role of Coastal Zone in modem society. GIS for Coastal Zone is an effort to assemble spatial data in order to provide development of decision support tools for the aquatic and terrestrial resources within selected Coastal Zone. The use of the shoreline has a direct and significant impact on the coastal waters and the large population centers that inhabit them. There are many scientific and managerial problems of mapping Coastal Zone. Costs of solutions are very high. The role of Remote Sensing Methods for the complex study of Coastal Zone is becoming more and more significant. Remote Sensing Change Detection in Coastal Zone is exemplified basing on the results obtained in the Laboratory for Coastal Zone, Institute of Remote Sensing Methods for Geology, St.-Petersburg. Several case studies of monitoring the state of the marine and coastal environments are presented.