Web-based and ‘real-time’ beach management system

The last 5 years has seen the rapid advancement of new image analysis methods specifically targeted to support and enhance coastal management practice. In parallel to these developments, greater attention has been given to the use of the Internet to build more manager-oriented information delivery systems. This paper draws upon experience from Australia using a network of Argus coastal imaging sites, to illustrate and discuss the suite of image-derived CZM ‘products’ that is now available to the coastal manager. Both qualitative and quantitative information is routinely delivered via the Internet, ranging from hourly images of the monitoring site to weekly summaries of shoreline variability and longer-term beach-width trends. All monitoring program results and data summaries are accessed via a World Wide Web interface, providing ‘real-time’ delivery direct to the managers’ desktop computer.