Using Drones and Satellite Data to Track Coastal Cliff Erosion

Researchers have come up with a smart new way to figure out how much coastal cliffs are eroding. They combined data from drones, satellites, and laser measurements to see how bad the erosion is. This method helps us understand both natural wear and tear on cliffs and damage to protective structures from storms and other extreme weather. By looking at pictures taken from above and laser data, they could spot areas hit hard by storms and see where big chunks of cliff might move. They used a computer program called Random Forest to decide which features were most important in finding these damaged zones.

To make sure their method worked, they tested it with data from different resolutions - 10cm, 20cm, 50cm, and 100cm - and compared it to data from a drone flyover two years later. The computer program was about 90% accurate across all the datasets! The results showed that using laser data and pictures from different colors of light, like green and near-infrared, was really helpful. They also found that using pictures from red and near-infrared light could help spot erosion too. This means we can keep an eye on coastal erosion caused by bad weather using different types of sensors all in one system. Isn't that cool?

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