Beach recreation planning using video-derived coastal state indicators

This contribution proposes Coastal State Indicators (CSIs) for application to different aspects of recreational beach management. The beaches considered in this study are important leisure and tourism resources and of primary concern to the managers responsible is the recreational carrying capacity of the beach. Given the range of factors which potentially affect the carrying capacity this contribution is restricted to just two variables: the level of beach-use and safety. For each variable a detailed management framework is proposed together with a specific methodology to monitor appropriate CSIs. In all the cases, the proposed indicators make use of the capabilities of Argus video-cameras to record multi-purpose information in a single image. Specific algorithms are developed to deliver video-derived variables which are combined with supplementary data (e.g. wave and tide information) to yield beach management CSIs. The application of these CSIs is illustrated via two case studies. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.