Beach monitoring with GPS

In common with many other countries that have an extended coastline, sea defence work in the UK involves much time and expense. For these projects, topographical information is usually required to represent beach and other areas for modelling and design purposes and to record the response of a sea defence once implemented. This survey information often has to be collected in a hostile environment in a relatively short time and this can be difficult to do with conventional surveying equipment such as levels and total stations. However, with the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), surveying equipment is now available that offers the ability to gather survey data at a fast rate that suits coastal and other inshore work. This paper gives details of some GPS surveying carried out by the University of Brighten for beach monitoring work and describes the field procedures and data processing carried out. In addition, the results obtained are discussed and future recommendations given.