While Victoria has a long history of weather variability such as storms, droughts and floods, climate change is projected to increase to coastal environments through drivers such as sea-level rise, change in wave direction and increases in swell energy and storm tide events (Figure 1). These drivers affect coastal erosion, sediment supply and inundation and are expected to vary geographically across Victoria‘s coastal zone.
Figure 1: Summary of the causes and drivers of coastal hazards
To provide communities with information on changing coastal hazards and the expected longer-term impacts on the coast to support adaptation planning, the Victorian Government has committed $4.9 million from the Victorian Sustainability Fund to support the Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program (VCMP). The Program was initiated in 2017 and is being led by DELWP's Environment and Climate Change group.
The creation of partnerships with community groups (citizen science) and institutions to co-invest in coastal monitoring projects at both regional and local scales has been central to the success of the VCMP. Co-funding partnerships have been established with Deakin University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Wollongong and Macquarie University to provide total investment of over $9 million. The further support of local governments and citizen science groups has been significant. As at 2019, investment has been directed as follows:
Monitoring of 15 priority open coast beach locations and selected shorelines of Western Port Bay ($4m Sustainability Fund plus co-investment of $3.8m from University Partners)
Monitoring of coastal waves and sea level rise ($760k Sustainability Fund, plus co-investments of $145k from DELWP’s Biodiversity Division and $900k from University Partners)
Monitoring of Port Phillip Bay beaches at Mount Martha and Bellarine Peninsula ($200k from Port Phillip Bay Fund and $200k from University Partner).
There are many projects involved in the VCMP, but each are complementary to provide Victoria with the most comprehensive assessment of coastal processes ever undertaken. View the program design here (PNG, 457.4 KB).
What is being monitored?
The VCMP involves monitoring of wave climate, sediment movement and sediment budgets in priority coastal compartments of Victoria’s open coastline, Western Port Bay and Port Phillip Bay. Knowledge of sediment budgets help us to identify which areas of Victoria’s are likely to lose or gain sediment under sea level rise and changes to wave directions (Figure 2). This assessment is crucial for understanding current processes and predicting future effects to undertake informed coastal adaptation planning and investment.
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Figure 2: To understand how sediment moves in a coastal compartment, monitoring must be undertaken across the entire shoreline (backshore, foreshore, intertidal) and in the adjoining seabed (subtidal) which is underwater (a). Sediment will move perpendicularly back and forwards across the shoreline and adjoining seabed, and longitudinally across the shoreline and adjoining seabed (b).
Play the short video below to see how the volume and extent of beach sediments changed on Warrnambool’s shoreline after a storm surge event in 2014.
Improving coastal erosion assessments on open coast shores
Deakin University (marinemapping.org) and Melbourne University (The Coastal Lab Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program) are leading monitoring of wave dominated shorelines. They are collecting data on the change in height, extent and volume of sediment on beaches and shoreline, and the sediment dynamics in the adjoining sub-tidal waters using a variety of remote sensing imagery techniques and sediment sampling.
Their program involves four themes, with several projects being undertaken concurrently for each theme that will address key gaps and provide benefits for coastal management and adaption planning (Table 1).
Find out more about the open coast program:
- Citizen Scientists are undertaking part of the monitoring using drones, find out more in the Citizen Science drone program brochure
(PDF, 3.0 MB) - Program overview and themes
- Research project summaries
- Design, workflow and study locations poster
To understand more about coastal erosion:
- Read the booklet: Understanding Coastal Erosion (PDF, 5.8 MB)
- Watch the webinar video - The causes of coastal erosion.
Need | Gaps to be filled | Benefits | Example Projects |
Theme 1: Shoreline sediment dynamics | |||
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| UAV Contribution to Coastal Compartments (Pucino et al. 2019) (PDF, 4.1 MB) Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Coastal Morphodynamics (Pucino et al. 2019) (PDF, 3.5 MB) Shoreline fluxes in Lady Bay, Warrnambool (Bhatt 2019) (PDF, 637.1 KB) Volumetric calculations using historical aerial photographic archive: moving beyong shoreline extraction in coastal Victoria (Carvalho et al. 2019) (PDF, 4.6 MB)Quantifying historic erosion rates along Victoria's Coastline (Konlechner et al. 2019) (PDF, 2.9 MB) Modern Dune Dynamics on the Inverloch Spit (McGuirk et al. 2019) (PDF, 3.1 MB)
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Theme 2: Marine (subtidal) sediment dynamics | |||
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| Deakin Marine Mapping is a group of researchers from Deakin University led by Daniel Ierodiaconou focusing on mapping the seafloor and coastlines of Victoria and beyond, see their website here.
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Theme 3: Coastal compartment modelling and visualisation | |||
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| Coastal Compartment Modelling and Visualisation (Morris 2019) (PDF, 2.2 MB)
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Theme 4: Coastal monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) & citizen science | |||
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| Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program (Allan 2019) (PDF, 3.7 MB) Citizen Science UAVs for Monitoring Shoreline Change (Allan et al. 2019) Citizen Science and UAVs: How to monitor the Victorian coast (Pucino et al. 2019) (PDF, 3.6 MB) Deakin Marine Mapping is a group of researchers from Deakin University led by Daniel Ierodiaconou focusing on mapping the seafloor and coastlines of Victoria and beyond, see their website here. |
Improving coastal erosion assessments of large embayments (Western Port Bay and Corner Inlet)
Monash University, along with delivery partners Macquarie University, University of Wollongong and University of Melbourne, is leading the monitoring of more sheltered mud flat and vegetated shorelines (mangroves and salt-marsh). Their focus is understanding sediment dynamics and how this influences changes in the extent of mudflats and adjoining saltmarsh and mangrove communities. The project includes improved assessments of coastal acid sulphate soils.
Read the program overview (PDF, 1.1 MB).
A number of projects have been implemented across four themes which will inform a framework for coastal erosion hazard in Victoria’s large sheltered embayments: geomorphic setting, hydrodynamic drivers, sediment dynamics, and coastal acid sulphate soils.
Take a look at the research project summaries (PDF, 181.6 KB).
These investigations will be complemented by a citizen science monitoring program (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Project themes for the Western Port embayment
This project will focus on Western Port Bay (an international listed Ramsar site and Global Biosphere Reserve) which is a structurally controlled tidal embayment with varied lithologies, alluvial and aeolian sediments and wetland communities which has resulted in a range of coastal and backshore environments. Four sites will be studied which are representative of the coastal compartments in Western Port Bay (Lang Lang, Tooradin, Rhyll and French Island). A fifth site at Corner Inlet embayment will be used to validate model outputs. Corner Inlet is an ecologically important site and listed as a Ramsar wetland which supports internationally significant aquatic and bird species.
The Western Port embayment project has the benefit of being able to utilise long-term monitoring stations first installed in 2000. Read more about the Western Port embayment project (PDF, 1.6 MB).
By combining father monitoring with additional investigations of the sources and sinks of sediments within the embayment, this will enable improved benefits such as modelling and advice on how shorelines may change in the future (Table 2).
Need | Gaps to be filled | Benefits | Example project |
Theme 1: Geomorphic Setting | |||
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| Westernport Bay Coastal wetland geomorphology (Rogers and Saintilan 2019) (PDF, 6.1 MB) |
Theme 2: Hydrodynamic drivers | |||
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Theme 3: Sediment Supply | |||
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| Wave s+ Hydro-Sed (Reef 2019) (PDF, 3.8 MB) Coastal Acid Sulfate Soils (Wong 2019) (PDF, 3.3 MB) |
Theme 4: Citizen Science Monitoring | |||
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| MangroveWatch is a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on the research, education and conservation of mangrove and tidal wetland environments globally. Much of our work is channeled through our flagship program that is built on partnerships between scientists, community volunteers and traditional owners, see MangroveWatchers! |
More information
For more information about the Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program please email mailto:vcmp@delwp.vic.gov.au?subject=Victorian%20Coastal%20Monitoring%20Program
For comprehensive information on climate change and coastal environments, including information about adaptation planning, please visit the National Climate Change Adaption Research Facility (NCCARF) website. The website offers a wide range of information materials, tools and datasets for coastal risk assessment and adaptation planning, including CoastAdapt.
Page last updated: 18/12/19