| Abstract | As part of the evolutionary development of the Journal of
Coastal Conservation: Planning and Management
(JCCPM), Special Issues (SI) can provide a very useful
way to focus on very specific coastal and marine themes,
topics, and issues of interest to a wide range of potential
readers. In the first of these Special Issues, the focus lies
with the role of spatial data analysis and geospatial tools in
various aspects of coastal and marine management.
This particular volume of the Journal of Coastal Conservation:
Planning and Management (JCCPM) explores some
of the many different ways in which the geospatial
technologies e.g. remote sensing, Geographical Information
Systems (GIS), and Photogrammetry are used to monitor,
map, model, and ultimately to help manage the coastal and
marine environment.
These technologies have been increasingly successfully
used for environmental applications to the coastal zone.
Spatial data and information is essential to almost all
aspects of coastal management helping us to characterise
the physical and human environment, record where scientific
observations have been made, define areas of measurement,
as the basis to describe patterns and distributions,
to record and track movements, and to provide a base or
reference map for the compilation of other spatial datasets
for use in spatial analyses. Developments in microprocessor
technology have provided the basis for a wide range of new
sensors, faster processors, improved display capabilities,
storage media, and portable devices, all of which allow us
to collect, input, store, process, and visualise spatial data
about the coast and marine areas.
Many such applications are now well documented; for
example, in a number of recent books e.g. Wright and
Bartlett (2000), Green and King (2003), Bartlett and Smith
(2004), and in the proceedings of coastal and marine
conferences including the Littoral and CoastGIS series, as
well as Coastal GeoTools in the USA.
The four papers in this volume have been drawn from
the CoastGIS 2005 symposium and exhibition held in
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, and represent a small crosssection
of the many different topics that lend themselves to
the application of these spatial data collection, analysis, and
visualisation tools. This issue also provides a contextual
setting for comparison to recent developments in such
technologies that will be reported in another series of
papers forming the basis for a future special issue of this
journal.
The paper by Dornbusch et al. examines the way in
which softcopy photogrammetry can be used to quantitatively
assess both spatial and temporal changes in coastlines.
Vassilopoulos et al. utilise a GIS to study the coastal
geomorphology of the coast of Greece. Brenner et al.
describe some environmental indicators for the Catalonian
coast in Spain based on a raster and vector data model.
Pelot and Plummer use geographical information systems
as the basis for visualizing and analysing spatial data for
maritime traffic and risk for a number of coastal and marine
applications. Whilst only a small cross-section of the many
possible geospatial applications, these four papers nevertheless
illustrate some of the different ways in which spatial
data, at a variety of different spatial and temporal scales, are
vital for many different aspects of coastal management.
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