iBeach is a cost-effective, persistent beach monitoring and AI-powered data analysis tool that maps coastal health over time
The impacts of climate change and sea level rise on our coasts are hard to understand by simply observing our shorelines. Continuous monitoring over long periods of time affords us a better understanding of these threats and is a means by which to enact real solutions. However, continuous monitoring poses significant cost challenges and traditional, intermittent survey efforts often are unable to paint a complete picture of coastal evolution over time.
iBeach provides a cost-effective, AI-powered, and persistent analysis of at-risk beaches. It can provide invaluable insights on erosion and seaside infrastructure protection.
iBeach utilizes networked cameras installed at high vantage points to collect real-time, high-resolution images over extended periods of time. Visual data is analyzed by proprietary iBeach Artificial Intelligence software which is then used to model shoreline changes and detect the causes such as sea level rise, seasonal impacts, adverse weather events, and more.
The results of these environmental shifts or anomalies can wreak havoc on our coasts. Hawaii’s coastlines, for example, are susceptible to extreme coastal erosion rates; up to 2 feet/year. Statewide, erosion rates are only expected to increase with incremental sea level rise, and this change could force property owners and coastal managers to make extremely difficult decisions about how to adapt, restore, armor, or retreat from rising seas.
Oceanit has studied the utility of iBeach versus other methods of gauging coastal changes such as UAV (drone) surveys and traditional beach profiling, in terms of temporal resolution, spatial coverage, labor & equipment costs and reliability. iBeach’s low cost and persistent data capture & analysis represents a giant leap forward in beach health monitoring. It allows for automated long-term observation and insight gathering like never before.
In addition to the hardware component of iBeach, Oceanit has developed BeachWatch which is a cloud-based repository for diverse data; such as shoreline surveys, iBeach, drone videos, photos, wave and current data, and crowd sourced data. BeachWatch is intended as a consolidated decision making tool for stakeholders.
iBeach constantly monitors visible sand percentages and beach levels over weeks, months, and years. It can detect problematic trends before they are fully visible to naked eye and the feedback generated on BeachWatch is exponentially more actionable than the feedback available via traditional methods. From large scale, public beaches to private homeowner associations, the use of iBeach can help to make responsible decisions to protect our precious coastlines.
To learn more, visit the iBeach website:
