In the most recent “Nature Scientific Reports” the A. Luijendijk with the team presented a global overview of coastal beaches. Luijendijk et al used freely available optical satellite images in conjunction with sophisticated image interrogation and analysis methods, to asses the occurrence of sandy beaches and rates of shoreline change. Based on pixel-based supervised classifcation, they made a global dataset of shoreline change rates for the 33 year period 1984–2016. Analysis of the satellite derived shoreline data indicates that 24% of the world’s sandy beaches are eroding at rates exceeding 0.5m/yr, while 28% are accreting and 48% are stable. The majority of the sandy shorelines in marine protected areas are eroding, raising cause for serious concern.
The State of the World’s Beaches
