Monitoring coastal changes a snap

Published 7:00am 27 May 2022

A new program will harness the photography of Moreton Bay residents and visitors to monitor changes to the region’s coastline.

Moreton Bay Regional Council will sign an agreement with the University of NSW Water Research Laboratory to roll out CoastSnap – a citizen science coastal monitoring program.

Launched on Sydney’s northern beaches in 2017, the program is now worldwide and uses photos taken by the community on their phones at CoastSnap stations, capturing images from consistent locations, which allows researchers to map changes over time. The photos are uploaded via an app.

Council envisages CoastSnap will capture high quality data to monitor and manage changing conditions, feeding information into its Hazard Management Strategy and other coastal planning and protection initiatives.

Involving community

Councillor Brooke Savige (Div 1) applauded the partnership, which was approved at last week’s Council meeting, saying CoastSnap is a great way to involve the community.

“It’s a fantastic initiative - it’s been rolled out in a number of locations and residents in my area travel extensively in Queensland and across the country and have actually asked me about this program,” Cr Savige said.

“So it’s wonderful to see Council is already moving in this direction because it helps us, but it’s also a great initiative for visitors and locals as well.”

Mayor Peter Flannery said he became aware of CoastSnap when he was involved with the Australian Coastal Council and was impressed by its potential.

“A NSW council had done it and they actually showed the different photos over the years and you could see the erosion of the coastline through natural means,” Mayor Flannery said.

“It showed not only the public, but also the council, the issues of erosion and what they needed to do to try and control it.

“It’s great for the community to be involved in providing data for us.”

Where the stations will be

Council coastal planning staff have selected nine sites for the CoastSnap stations.

The monitoring sites have been chosen and aligned to avoid views that directly impinge upon personal privacy of visitors, such as beach showers and toilet blocks.