article · Scientific Reports
Regular monitoring of coastal zones is vital for mitigating risks driven by climate change and human activities. African coastal regions face significant vulnerability, yet continuous observational data remains scarce due to the high costs of field campaigns and high-resolution satellite imagery. Free satellite data often lacks the temporal and spatial detail needed to capture rapidly evolving events. To resolve this limitation, a network of low-cost, shore-based video camera systems has been established across African coastlines. The initiative relies on shared data, collaborative methodologies, and collective findings to support integrated coastal management policies across nations. The cameras provide critical insights into beach evolution, local wave dynamics, and sea level impacts. This infrastructure serves as a multi-disciplinary platform to track coastal erosion, flooding, fisheries, and sargassum landings, while underpinning early warning systems and sustainable infrastructure planning.
African coastal communities and infrastructure face severe threats from climate hazards, erosion, and extreme weather, yet long-term monitoring has been hindered by expensive data collection methods. Deploying affordable, land-based camera networks offers a practical way to track rapid coastal changes continuously. This local data helps authorities build effective early warning systems and protect vulnerable marine ecosystems and populations.
The network represents an applied and operational monitoring technology that can be used by coastal managers, port authorities, and environmental agencies. It enables practical tools such as early warning systems for floods and erosion, alongside data services for managing fisheries, tracking sargassum seaweed, and planning maritime infrastructure. The technology appears tested in real-world coastal environments and ready for wider operational deployment across regional management bodies.
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Regular and long-term monitoring of coastal areas is a prerequisite to avoiding or mitigating the impacts of climate and human-driven hazards. In Africa, where populations and infrastructures are particularly exposed to risk, there is an urgent need to establish coastal monitoring, as observations are generally scarce. Measurement campaigns and very high-resolution satellite imagery are costly, while freely available satellite observations have temporal and spatial resolutions that are not suited to capture the event scale. To address the gap, a network of low-cost, multi-variable, shore-based video camera systems has been installed along the African coasts. Here, we present this network and its principle of sharing data, methods, and results obtained, building toward the implementation of a common integrated coastal management policy between countries. Further, we list new contributions to the understanding of still poorly documented African beaches' evolution, waves, and sea level impacts. This network is a solid platform for the development of inter-disciplinary observations for resources and ecology (such as fisheries, and sargassum landing), erosion and flooding, early warning systems during extreme events, and science-based coastal infrastructure management for sustainable future coasts.
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DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28815-6
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