Synergy of GPS, digital photogrammetry and InSAR in coastal environments

Coastal zone management is becoming increasingly important to government authorities who are charged with monitoring changes to the coastline brought about by phenomena such as erosion, marine flooding or landslides. Previously, monitoring techniques have often been crude and inefficient, due to the inherent problems associated with the wide areas and dynamic processes existing in the coastal zone. This research is developing a faster, more accurate and more efficient monitoring system, by deriving synergy from three integrated measurement technologies. Elevation models derived from the Global Positioning System (GPS) and digital photogrammetry are merged to form an episodic coastal change model at a high spatial resolution; this information is then updated regularly using spaceborne synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) data. The integrated model, with high spatial and temporal resolution, forms the basis for understanding coastal processes