How beachgoers are turning snaps into science

CoastSnap is part of a project called Co-creating Coastal Resilience (CoCor) Beachgoers are being invited to become citizen scientists to help track how our coastline is changing. Armed with nothing more than a smartphone, visitors to Tyrella Beach in County Down can now take part in a global project by snapping a photo through a fixed frame and logged via a website. Each picture becomes part of a growing record that scientists will use to monitor how the beach shifts over time, helping them understand the effects of coastal erosion, rising sea levels and climate change. Open days will be held to show people how to get involved. As a geomorphologist with Geological Survey Northern Ireland, Melanie Biausque studies how coastlines change over time. She is leading the project in Northern Ireland and said people who regularly visit the beach have the power to transform scientists' understanding of how it is changing. "We're trying to understand how the coastline changes now and how it will evolve in the future, what can we do now to protect it so it's not too impacted ." CoastSnap cradle on Tyrella beach The shifting sands at Tyrella beach are home to the first CoastSnap photo spot in Northern Ireland. CoastSnap, which began in Australia, is part of a project called CoCor - Co-creating Coastal Resilience. Tyrella was chosen because of the work local volunteers have already carried out to restore its sand dunes. However, Biausque and other scientists are preparing for "big" changes, in the form of sea level rise and more frequent storms due to the effects of climate change. "If we want to understand how it's going to happen and what's going to happen on the coast, we need to understand what is happening now and how it works." That is where CoastSnap comes in. , researchers can build up a detailed picture of how the coastline responds to different weather conditions and seasons. The Northern Ireland branch of the project is funded , with more sites across soon to be equipped with the photo cradle and signs to explain how to take part in the project. Taking part is simple - the only equipment needed is your phone. Just one specific part of the coastline will be photographed, so that the team has many pictures of one spot that can form a database of evidence to be studied. A steel cradle, designed to hold your phone horizontally, has been placed on a fence post.