Tyrella Beach: Citizen Science Meets Coastal Resilience
The humble beach snapshot is being transformed into a powerful tool for scientific research. At Tyrella Beach in County Down, a simple idea is making waves. Armed with nothing more than a smartphone, beachgoers are becoming citizen scientists, contributing to a global project that aims to understand and protect our coastlines.
This innovative initiative, called CoastSnap, is part of the CoCor project, Co-creating Coastal Resilience. It's a grassroots effort that harnesses the power of community engagement to monitor and study coastal changes. By snapping photos through a fixed frame and uploading them to a dedicated website, visitors to Tyrella Beach are helping scientists track the dynamic nature of our coastlines.
The project is led by Melanie Biausque, a geomorphologist with the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland. She's passionate about the potential of this citizen science approach, especially in understanding the impact of climate change on our coastlines.
"We're trying to understand how the coastline changes now and how it will evolve in the future," Biausque explains. "What can we do now to protect it so it's not too impacted by the changes that are going to happen in the environment?"
Tyrella Beach was chosen for its unique characteristics and the dedicated work of local volunteers. The beach's shifting sands and the efforts to restore its sand dunes make it an ideal location for CoastSnap. Biausque first learned about the volunteers' work through a presentation to the Newry, Mourne and Down council, and she was inspired to bring their efforts into the spotlight.
"When I heard that, I realized that I had never had any idea that was happening," she says. "And I really wanted to put that on the map and to say, things are happening. But one thing that we don't do is to see how that evolves."
The coastline is a dynamic environment, constantly changing due to waves, tides, currents, and wind. However, scientists are bracing for more significant changes, such as rising sea levels and more frequent storms, all driven by climate change.
"If we want to understand how it's going to happen and what's going to happen on the coast, we need to understand what is happening now and how it works," Biausque emphasizes. This is where CoastSnap comes in.
By taking multiple photos from the same position over time, researchers can build a detailed picture of how the coastline responds to different weather conditions and seasons. This data will be crucial in understanding coastal erosion, rising sea levels, and the overall impact of climate change.
The Northern Ireland branch of CoastSnap is funded by the Department for the Economy, and more sites are being equipped with photo cradles and signs to encourage participation. Taking part is incredibly simple: just your phone.
A steel cradle holds your phone horizontally, ensuring every photo is taken from the same angle. An opening in the cradle frames the specific area of interest, such as the upper part of the beach where the volunteers worked. After taking the photo, visitors can scan a QR code and upload it to the CoastSnap website.
The process is entirely anonymous, and visitors can choose to provide their contact information if they wish. The project runs throughout the seasons, and participants can record additional observations, such as coastal erosion or vegetation changes.
Biausque is excited about the potential of this citizen science approach. "Why do we have algae standing here? Why sometimes you can see the vegetation progressing? Why do you come in the winter and the beach is so different?" she asks. "All of this is the interaction between the sand or the sediment and the waves, the currents, the tides, and at the minute we know that all of those processes are going to change in the future. But to understand how we can live with it and adapt around that, we need to understand better how it works today. So that's why we need to collect."
In conclusion, Tyrella Beach is a testament to the power of citizen science in understanding and protecting our coastlines. By turning beach snapshots into scientific data, we can better prepare for the challenges posed by climate change and ensure a more resilient future for our coastal communities.
