EO·Atlas
Coastal erosion
Coastal erosion monitoring uses repeated observations to measure shoreline position change, beach and cliff retreat, sediment dynamics, and coastal land-loss trends.[1][2]
Temporary storm-surge inundation is outside the topic unless it is tied to persistent morphology change.[1][2]
Primary observations include repeated optical shoreline extraction, topographic or LiDAR surveys, SAR change evidence, and contextual sea-level or wave datasets.[1][3]
Shoreline-change mapping and trend assessment are operational, with site uncertainty driven by tidal datum, waterline proxy selection, storm state, and cliff or beach morphology.[2][3]
SAR backscatter change detection can detect coastline and coastal land-cover change under cloud and at night, InSAR can measure ground deformation contributing to relative shoreline retreat and coastal instability, and optical-SAR fusion combines optical shoreline evidence with SAR continuity for cloud-prone coasts.[1][3]
Radar altimetry provides sea-level context for erosion risk and relative shoreline-change interpretation rather than direct shoreline mapping.[1][3]
What's available today
2 data products and 92 sensors. Start with the most-used; switch to Filter for the full catalogue.
- [1]USGS National Assessment of Shoreline Changeagency doc-2026-05-27
- [2]USGS Digital Shoreline Analysis Systemagency doc-2026-05-27
- [3]Remote Sensing in Coastline Detectionpeer reviewed2020-07-012026-05-27
How to cite this page
Plain text
Coastal erosion. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V., last reviewed 2026-05-27. https://eo-atlas.org/topics/coastal-erosion (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:topics:coastal-erosion,
title = {Coastal erosion},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
year = {2026},
note = {Last reviewed 2026-05-27. CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/topics/coastal-erosion}
}