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Issue: 70 | December 2022
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As the weather turns colder, and the surveyors start piling on the layers, what's better than to sit back and catch up with the monitoring programme's latest news?
In this edition you'll find some updates on the tide gauges, a round-up of some recent engagement and dissemination activities, a link to some new historic aerial photography dating back as far as the 1950's, and details of some recent training we've been doing alongside the regular updates from the project team.
And then it's just left to me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas, and a calm winter break!
Charlie Thompson – Regional Co-Ordinator
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Three NNRCMP tide gauges have recently been relevelled: Deal Pier, Swanage Pier and West Bay Harbour. This is part of an ongoing plan to relevel all of the tide gauges in the network within the next year, to ensure the ongoing accuracy of their measurements.
At each site, an extended (> 8 hour) fast-static GPS observation was carried out on the tide gauge benchmark (TGBM) and the resulting elevation was levelled across to the contact point on the tide gauge. A laser scanner was used to level across from the TGBM to the contact at Deal pier, due to the height of the tide gauge’s frame.
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The levelling survey at the WaveRadar REX on Swanage Pier. Copyright: Channel Coastal Observatory.
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The levelling survey at the WaveRadar REX on Deal Pier. Copyright: Channel Coastal Observatory.
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Further Integrating Realtime Tidal and Wave Data
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Following on from our addition of simultaneous wave and tide charts showcased in June's newsletter, the option to add a column with tide levels from the nearest NNRCMP or NTSLF tide gauge has been added to the 'Table Data' view for each wave buoy site. To view the tide column in the table, simply check the box above the table with the name of the nearest tide gauge.
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The ‘show tide data’ box is checked and the concurrent tide levels from the Lymington tide gauge are appended on the right-hand side of the Milford wave data.
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Representation at Meetings
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Charlie has had lots of opportunities to share some of CCO's wider research recently:
She presented at the Crab and Lobster Online Symposium, organised by Blue Marine Foundation, on the 16th November. Here she spoke about the ongoing work on the CHASM (Crustacea Habitat and Sediment Movement) project and the plans to develop this project into a more focused research project through targeting funding applications. This project has seen partners from Chichester District Council, Brighton University, Portsmouth University, the Environment Agency, and beyond, working to determine the links between coastal change and declines in crustacea stocks in the UK. The importance of this work has been highlighted by recent mass die-off events in the North East this year, and you can find out more here:
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She also had the opportunity to speak at the European Space Agency’s Blue Economy Final Review Meeting on the 17th November. This was a chance to reflect on our work with NOC on the BlueCo project headed up by Christine Sams, and the extension project SAR-TWL, which have been exploring methods for mapping intertidal areas using SAR data. It was also a chance to reflect more widely on the potential benefits of Earth Observation for coastal monitoring. Great to feel heard by the ESA.
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Two recent podcasts have also featured Charlie. The first was part of the University of Southampton’s Policy Pod series, one of three episodes on Transformational Coasts, with a lively discussion with the EA’s Uwe Dornbusch and MP for East Worthing and Shoreham Tim Loughton on the challenges and opportunities in coastal adaptation. Have a listen to this (and the other episodes in the series) here:
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Find out more about the wider project led by Sien Van Der Plank here:
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The second was a unique chance to talk a little more generally about coasts, coastal monitoring and coastal research as part of the Creative Writing Against Coastal Waste project, a collaboration between the Southampton Institute of Arts and Humanities and ArtfulScribe. This will be used as part of training for creative writers from the local region to help develop their understanding of coastal environments and waste, who will go on to deliver themed workshops to the local communities in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
We are also pleased to announce that a new conference series focussed on UK coasts is launching next year. The UK Coastal Research Conference will be hosted by the University of Plymouth Coastal Processes Research Group in partnership with ourselves in the National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes, in July 2023. Abstract submission is open now, and we encourage all our research-focussed readers to check it out on the UKCRC Website.
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We have recently made a wider range of historic non-rectified aerial photography available for download from our Map Viewer and Data Catalogue.
It covers dates ranging from 1957 to 1994, and you can see it's coverage in the map below.
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Historic aerial photography available from the Map Viewer.
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For those interested in historic aerial photography, there is also the Historic England Aerial Photography archive available below
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This November, four surveyors from the CCO were lucky enough to attend the 3/3P Beachmaster Supervisor course, awarded by the MCA. The qualification is intended to allow professionals from local authorities and contractors to competently manage a section of beach in response to an oil spill incident. The course was run over two days, at Lepe Country Park, with one day of classroom presentations and one day of hands-on experience on the beach, simulating a spill incident.
The classroom session took attendees through the science behind an oil spill, the laws, legislation and frameworks governing bodies follow in a response, and examples of these being put into practice. It also prepared for the practical session the next day by giving training on clean-up methods, shore protection techniques and team management advice.
On the second day, attendees got to experience a simulation of managing the beach during an oil spill response, a demonstration of the equipment used and practice deploying booms from the shore. Overall, the training was very well delivered, and CCO surveyors now have the knowledge to assist local authorities in our region in the event of an oil spill.
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Due to the work team members carry out on the CCO survey boat Zephyr, a staple and strong favourite among training programmes for new staff members is the RYA Sea Survival training course. The course aims to train attendees in the essentials of survival during an emergency at sea.
The CCO took part in a theory session covering topics such as cold water shock, effective distress signalling, and examples of different models of life jackets and buoyancy aids. This was followed by a session in a pool which put into practice important skills used to conserve body heat and energy, assist in the rescue of casualties at sea, and the deployment, boarding and control of a life raft.
A flare session was then held in which attendees were taught to properly handle and fire a flare, with accompanying theory regarding the most effective flare to choose for use in different locations and scenarios.
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Worthing Borough Council Update
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We completed our autumn surveys by the end of October, with all of the surveys being successful and producing some good data. Conditions were luckily good throughout the season, with only a little rain and some patches of mud on the lower foreshore after the prolonged calm conditions.
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Survey at Hastings & Bulverhythe. Copyright: Worthing Borough Council.
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Our Autumn 2022 Interim survey reports have recently been completed for the 4d Coastal Cell beaches between Selsey Bill & Beachy Head and there are available here:
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We have used some of the new data to update our animation of the Pagham spit animation which is available on the CCO Youtube channel.
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Pagham spit animation
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Canterbury City Council Update
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It has been a very busy survey year for us in the south east with nearly all survey units receiving a full baseline survey in the spring, a structure survey in the summer and then more recently, our routine autumn profiles. For now, surveying has finished but we wait with baited breath for any post storm surveys before the Christmas break.
We are using our survey down time to undertake equipment maintenance and research new equipment which could improve our data collection methods, including a demo of the Trimble X12 next week. We have used recent weeks to finish processing the structure data, QC Worthing autumn data and write our 2022 interim reports.
In more unusual news, we are preparing for an office move in the new year which will see us leave the current building in the centre of Canterbury, where we have been since the programme started in 2003, and take up a new space within Whitstable Harbour overlooking the Swale Estuary on the north Kent coast - a perfect location to keep an eye on any storms rolling in from the North Sea!
Lastly, the team recently attended the SANDS user conference and despite being long term users of the programme we all learnt new tips which we are excited to look into in more depth in 2023.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Canterbury team! We will be closed over Christmas as we take a short break, before returning in January ready to do it all again!
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One of our tasks for the period was to Laser Scan the latest ‘discovery’ at the ‘Southsea Coastal Scheme’. The scheme, currently in its 3rd year of construction, has a history of uncovering history! This time a historic wall was discovered alongside The Southsea Castle. To understand the impacts on the design of the new defences the Geomatics team scanned the area (see picture) from five separate locations. The different angles enabled as much coverage of the wall as possible. The scans were performed using Cloud to Cloud Processing and have now been meshed to provide one master scan. This method of processing is valuable as it uses corresponding points across multiple scans and ties them all together.
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Southsea Castle Historic Wall. Copyright: Havant Borough Council.
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Alongside our projects, we have also been getting involved in training. Six members of the team recently carried out the PfCO (Permission for Commercial Operation), CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) Drone Training Course run by The Drone Pilot Academy. This breadth of training will prove invaluable for coastal mapping tasks such as drone surveys, aerial inspections and topographical surveys that will be undertaken throughout the team.
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Drone Training. Copyright: Havant Borough Council.
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Southeast Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme
Area Representatives
Isle of Grain to Beachy Head
Claire French, Canterbury City Council, coastalmonitoring@canterbury.gov.uk
01227 862537
Beachy Head to Selsey Bill
Dan Amos, Adur & Worthing Councils, coastalmonitoring@adur-worthing.gov.uk
01903 221376
Selsey Bill to Portland Bill
Stuart McVey, New Forest District Council, stuart.mcvey@noc.soton.ac.uk
023 8059 8641
Channel Coastal Observatory
CCO@channelcoast.org
023 8059 8467
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