Typical sensor grid pattern

Pioneering tests of the world’s first underwater coastal erosion monitoring system are to take place for the first time next week in Wales. ASTEC ( Automated Sensing Technologies For Coastal Monitoring)  employs a ‘grid of electromagnetic sensors’  which could  save billions of pounds and have a positive  effect on millions of lives around the world by predicting exactly which parts of coastal areas will be eroded,  a  problem affecting approximately 17% of the UK.

With 50-70% of the global population living in coastal zones and rising sea levels accelerated by climate change, this new technology could give scientists the vital information needed to predict what is happening beneath the surface of the sea at our coasts. Until now data  for coastal erosion has been largely obtained by naked eye observations and measurements of exposed coastal areas, such as beaches. But details of what happens below the sea’s surface has generally not been measurable.

Experts from Swansea Metropolitan University’s School of Built and Natural Environment and School of Applied Computing have teamed up with Wireless Fibre Systems Ltd (WFS) and Valeport Ltd to produce automated sensing technologies for coastal monitoring using the new prototype.

The system works via a series of solid steel sensors placed in a grid pattern on the sea bed. Each sensor measures the weight of sand and sediment on top of it, very similar to home weighing scales. At 15- minute intervals data is wirelessly transmitted to a buoy on the surface of the water where it is then transferred once a day via satellite phone system to a computer for analysis. This should enable more accurate decisions to be made regarding intervention levels and the type of intervention when such events occur and could have significant implications for coastal management.

With  present uncertainties over climate change and its consequential expected impacts on our coastlines, this system could provide valuable data to quantify these effects more completely and therefore enable coastal defence organisations to make the appropriate responses. In the past acoustic and optical technology has been used to monitor underwater activity, but both are restricted because of the turbulent environment, debris and salt water. Until now electromagnetic  technology has always been used on land but has , up until now, never been possible underwater.

With current flood defences struggling to keep pace with environmental changes a  drastic rethink in coast management approach is  needed to safeguard our coastlines. Not only would this technology provide the vital information needed  for effective coast management, but it would also have the potential to save many millions of pounds and  have a positive impact on millions of lives along our coastline.