ABSTRACT
Monitoring changes in the morphology of coastal environments is important for understanding how they function as systems and how they can be most effectively managed to offer maximum protection of the coastal hinterland. The quick, precise, and efficient method of topographic data capture associated with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) facilitates improved monitoring of morphological changes to coastal environments over traditional survey methods. TLS systems are capable of providing very detailed three-dimensional topographic information in the form of a point cloud—a densely packed collection of x,y,z coordinates that collectively represent the external surface of a surveyed area. Such detailed elevation information is useful for monitoring and modelling morphological trends related to, for example, changes in climate, storminess, sea level, and local hydrodynamics.
This chapter describes the use of terrestrial laser scanning to quantify morphological change at two sites on the southwest coast of Ireland. It addresses some of the common challenges associated with the use of TLS as a monitoring tool in vegetated coastal dune environments, including data collection, processing, and analysis. A specific workflow for generating digital elevation models and elevation and volume change maps using GIS software is presented.
