VedgeSat: An automated, open-source toolkit for coastal change monitoring using satellite-derived vegetation edges

We’re supporting research at the University of Glasgow by Freya Muir who recently published a paper in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms as well as an open-source tool for mapping coastal change, known as VedgeSat.

The aim of Freya’s research is to develop an operational framework for predicting coastal change, using machine learning techniques that are trained with satellite observations.

VedgeSat is built on the CoastSat framework, and uses freely available satellite imagery and AI to detect vegetation edges to monitor and assess the impact of storms on the coastline and help understand the behaviour of coastal processes.  Validation of the tool showed that the best results are obtained along sandy open-coast shores. 

Figure 1. St. Andrews and Eden Estuary study site. (a) Validation site (marked in black) in Scotland, UK. (b) Extent of the study site with dominant coastal ecotype/land use mapped. (c, d) Ground-truth mapped vegetation edges and example rates of change at Tentsmuir and the St Andrews peninsula, respectively. [Figure taken from published paper].

The journal paper is open access, so anyone can read it for free: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5835 

The VedgeSat toolkit is available to download here: GitHub – fmemuir/COASTGUARD: Coastal Observation + Analysis using Satellite-derived Timeseries, Generated Using AI + Real-time Data

Citations

Muir, F.M.E., Hurst, M.D., Richardson-Foulger, L., Rennie, A.F. & Naylor, L.A. (2024) VedgeSat: An automated, open-source toolkit for coastal change monitoring using satellite-derived vegetation edges. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 49(8), 2405–2423.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5835 

Funding and support

Freya’s research is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Grant/Award Number: NE/S007431/1 as part of the NERC IAPETUS2 doctoral training programme, NatureScot and JBA Trust.

Freya is supervised by Dr Martin Hurst and Prof Larissa Naylor (University of Glasgow), Dr Carlos Loureiro (Stirling University), Dr Alistair Rennie (NatureScot) and Dr Doug Pender (JBA Consulting).