Using a personal watercraft for monitoring bathymetric changes at storm scale
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Abstract
Monitoring and understanding coastal processes is important for the Netherlands since the most densely populated areas are situated directly behind the coastal defense. Traditionally, bathymetric changes are monitored at annual intervals, although nowadays it is understood that most dramatic changes are related to high-energy events like storms. To monitor their impact it is important to have access to a flexible surveying platform that is directly operational after the storm. For this reason, Delft University of Technology has developed a PWC (Personal Watercraft) based surveying system. The objective of the present study is to monitor bathymetric changes on the shoreface of the straight sandy Holland coast on the temporal and spatial scale of storm impact. In this paper the PWC as a surveying platform is evaluated and it is demonstrated that both the theoretical and practical error assessment indicate a depth accuracy in the order of 1 decimeter, depending on wave conditions. Moreover, the depth maps resulting from the surveys show that observed morphological changes are in agreement with the expected behaviour considering literature of Van Rijn [1997]. The results on measurement accuracy and on observed coastal changes at storm scale demonstrate the potential of a flexible surveying platform such as a PWC.