Mann, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9182-2741 and Westphal, Hildegard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7324-6122 (2014) Assessing Long-Term Changes in the Beach Width of Reef Islands Based on Temporally Fragmented Remote Sensing Data. Remote Sensing, 6 (8). pp. 6961-6987. DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6086961.

Text Mann 2014.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0. Download (11MB)

Abstract

Atoll islands are subject to a variety of processes that influence their geomorphological development. Analysis of historical shoreline changes using remotely sensed images has become an efficient approach to both quantify past changes and estimate future island response. However, the detection of long-term changes in beach width is challenging mainly for two reasons: first, data availability is limited for many remote Pacific islands. Second, beach environments are highly dynamic and strongly influenced by seasonal or episodic shoreline oscillations. Consequently, remote-sensing studies on beach morphodynamics of atoll islands deal with dynamic features covered by a low sampling frequency. Here we present a study of beach dynamics for nine islands on Takú Atoll, Papua New Guinea, over a seven-decade period. A considerable chronological gap between aerial photographs and satellite images was addressed by applying a new method that reweighted positions of the beach limit by identifying “outlier” shoreline positions. On top of natural beach variability observed along the reweighted beach sections, we found that one third of the analyzed islands show a statistically significant decrease in reweighted beach width since 1943. The total loss of beach area for all islands corresponds to 44% of the initial beach area. Variable shoreline trajectories suggest that changes in beach width on Takú Atoll are dependent on local control (that is, human activity and longshore sediment transport). Our results show that remote imagery with a low sampling frequency may be sufficient to characterize prominent morphological changes in planform beach configuration of reef islands.

Document Type:	Article
Programme Area:	UNSPECIFIED
Research affiliation:	Biogeochemistry and Geology > Geoecology & Carbonate Sedimentology
Refereed:	Yes
Open Access Journal?:	Yes
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6086961
ISSN:	2072-4292
Related URLs:	Data link
Date Deposited:	09 Aug 2019 15:08
Last Modified:	27 Apr 2022 12:47
URI:	http://cris.leibniz-zmt.de/id/eprint/2556

Actions (login required)

View Item