Story perspectives

CoastSnap expands to 200 stations worldwide for erosion tracking

By Drooid · Oct 23, 2026, 10:59 AM UTC · How we work

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Summary

Story summary

Australia’s CoastSnap project lets researchers monitor coastal erosion worldwide using citizen-collected photos.
The initiative, launched in 2017, now operates over 200 stations in 21 countries, including the United Kingdom.
Citizen scientists mount phones in fixed-position cradles that capture shoreline images aligned and timestamped for tide correction.
Software converts images to bird’s-eye views, maps each shoreline and detects day-by-day changes to assess storm impacts or sand-replenishment success.

1 of 1

Story summary

Australia’s CoastSnap project lets researchers monitor coastal erosion worldwide using citizen-collected photos.
The initiative, launched in 2017, now operates over 200 stations in 21 countries, including the United Kingdom.
Citizen scientists mount phones in fixed-position cradles that capture shoreline images aligned and timestamped for tide correction.
Software converts images to bird’s-eye views, maps each shoreline and detects day-by-day changes to assess storm impacts or sand-replenishment success.