Ramesh, M.; Sheela Nair, L.; Ramachandran, K.K., and Prakash, T.N., 2020. Development of video monitoring system for coastal applications. In: Sheela Nair, L.; Prakash, T.N.; Padmalal, D., and Kumar Seelam, J. (eds.), Oceanic and Coastal Processes of the Indian Seas. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 89, pp. 118-125. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

A pilot study for continuous monitoring to understand the complex coastal processes has been launched by the Coastal Processes Group of NCESS by the installation of a video monitoring system at Valiathura beach of Thiruvananthapuram, SW coast of India. The integrated system which is being indigenously developed by NCESS is cost-effective and robust. It consists of three major components viz. hardware (cameras with continuous recording facility), software for processing of the recorded videos and the data communication part. The various components of pilot system have been successfully tested at the Valiathura site and parameters like the beach width, surf zone width and wave run-up are derived from the recorded video images. The video derived parameters are validated with field measurements, which have shown reasonably good correlation. Based on the test results, efforts are being made to further fine tune the system so that it can be used for societal applications like giving timely information and warning to the coastal community, particularly during a crisis or in dangerous situations. Further fine tuning of the hardware and software components of the integrated system for facilitating real-time coastal monitoring is underway. Once established, this facility will be extremely useful to the disaster management authorities for adopting appropriate disaster mitigation and management measures as continuous erosion is considered as a potential hazard.