Big coastal management requires big coastal monitoring: two decades of operational coastal imaging at australia’s gold coast

2022 marks over two decades since the construction of the Narrowneck multi-purpose reef at the Northern Gold Coast, Queensland. The reef was implemented in 2000 in parallel with 1.1 million m3 of beach nourishment which is one of the most innovative and large-scale coastal management projects in Australia (Boak et al. 2000). Effecting beach management works of this scale also required implementation of a cutting edge coastal monitoring program, with the Water Research Laboratory (WRL) working alongside Gold Coast City Council to establish an Argus camera system at Surfers Paradise in 1999 (Turner et al, 2004). At the time, this station was the forefront of coastal monitoring technology, providing weekly shoreline position, intertidal morphology and rectified imagery of the beach. The monitoring system now provides Council with aerial imagery and measurements of the complete 32 km of beaches within the littoral drift dominated sediment compartment, every hour of the day. This paper reflects on two decades of monitoring system advances, and presents the challenges and capabilities in operating such a significant beach monitoring network over such a long period of time.