Alan S. Trenhaile’s research while affiliated with University of Windsor and other places

Rocky coastal regions are often inaccessible due to steep slopes and high relief. Remotely sensed data can, therefore, be useful, but they often have low spatial and temporal resolution and, in the case of airborne LiDAR, if not publically available , are costly to obtain. This paper reports on the use of high-resolution images from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques, supplemented by a series of orthophotos and aerial LiDAR, to examine changes in rocky coastal cliffs from 2002 to 2018. The study was conducted over an 800 m-long, orthogneiss-dominated coastal section in northwestern Galicia, Spain. Cliff changes are due, primarily, to rockfalls, resulting from weathering and wave undercutting, which cause talus deposits to accumulate at the cliff foot. These deposits provide temporary protection to the cliff from wave action, until destabilized and removed by wave erosion and shallow landslides. Cliff recession rates are affected by changing conditions within a cycle and are dependent, in part, on when a survey is conducted. The data suggest that rates of cliff recession are increasing in this region and that the plan shape of the coast, which consists of headlands and bays, is continuing to evolve. Most coastal landslides in this region help to transport and dispose of talus fallen from the cliff. In contrast to landslides that remove intact materials from the cliff face, and are, therefore, primary erosional mechanisms, talus landslides are triggered by wave erosion and probably simultaneously, by storm wave spray and splash, rather than by heavy rainfall.

Most research on shore platforms has been at fairly large spatial scales over distances ranging from hundreds to thousands of metres. Other work at much smaller scales, ranging from one to several decimetres, often corresponds to the dimensions of micro-erosion meter stations. Few studies have been concerned with platform morphology in which the basic data are acquired at intermediate or meso-scales ranging up to a few metres. This is due, in part, to terrestrial surveying at meso-scales being time-consuming while aerial surveys using LiDAR are expensive. A meso-scale study was made on three shore platforms in western Galicia, northwestern Spain using data from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to produce high resolution Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and to calculate local surface elevation, roughness, slope, and joint density at a 0.5 m pixel scale, and joint orientation and length. This was supplemented by Equotip field measurements of rock hardness. A granitic platform was higher and had rougher surfaces and steeper slopes than two platforms in schist. The relationship between platform morphology and rock hardness and joint density was complex, however, reflecting in part the role of schistosity in accounting for the formation of low, regular platforms in hard schists with low joint density. The study suggested that while tidal range, inheritance, and other environmental and evolutionary factors can be dominant in determining platform morphology at the macro- or regional scale, geological, and particularly structural, factors become increasingly important in Galicia as the scale diminishes, and they are generally dominant at the local or meso-scale.

Rock coasts constitute the majority of the world's shorelines and result largely from erosive processes. Rates of erosion vary from almost nil to tens of meters per year. Cliff and shore platforms are the most common landform types but even these display significant variations in morphology depending on sea-level history, tidal range, the relative contributions of marine and subaerial processes, and geological properties of the rock. Smaller scale features such as stacks and arches are important elements and contribute significantly to landscape values and subsequently, tourism economies. The evolutionary history of rock coasts is difficult to reconstruct because of their erosional origin but modeling and cosmogenic nuclide age dating has revealed much about how such coastlines have developed over the latter part of the Pleistocene and Holocene.

Previous studies using unmanned aerial vehicles and remote sensing techniques have provided data on group sediment dynamics and overall mobility of a boulder beach at Oia in Galicia, northwestern Spain. They recorded changes in the location and disposition of hundreds of clasts but were unable to trace the intermittent movement of individual boulders. Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) sensors were used in the present study to identify and record the long-term trajectories of boulders in this area. Sensors were installed in 80 boulders (mean intermediate axes approximately 55 cm) in September 2016 and were used to locate and record their displacement on five occasions, terminating in December 2019. Although burial and other factors prevented data being collected from every tagged boulder during these periods, recovery rates ranged from approximately 50%–75% of the original population. There was considerable variability in the displacement of the boulders, with maxima of >20 m and mean values >5 m. The distance of travel tended to decrease during the course of this study, despite a corresponding increase in storm frequency and intensity. Patterns of movement, including transport distance and direction were essentially chaotic in nature, reflecting the complex interaction and compound effect of a multitude of controls related to such factors as the location of boulders on the beach, their relationship to surrounding boulders, including the effects of sheltering, interlocking, and burial, and their size, shape, and other physical characteristics. The unpredictable behaviour and high transport thresholds of boulder beaches are in contrast to sand and gravel beaches that are characterized by more uniform and predictable patterns of sediment transport and morphological change.

A numerical model was used to determine whether the landward migration of shore platforms at the low tidal level, due to downwearing and possibly other mechanisms, can match the recession caused by wave erosion at the high tidal level. The hybrid model calculated the time required to undercut a cliff face and to remove the debris, and the amount of recession accomplished at the low tidal level during that time. These iterations were repeated over the equivalent of a 40,000 year period. The rates of high tidal erosion calculated during model runs were representative of cliff recession rates recorded in the field, and downwearing rates, specified for each run, were based on data recorded on shore platforms with micro-erosion meters. Almost all runs demonstrated that platform gradients decline asymptotically to a state of dynamic equilibrium that is strongly related to tidal range and rock resistance, although its relationship to wave height varies according to attenuation rates in the surf zone. Periodic changes in rock resistance and continuous changes in cliff height can introduce perturbations that delay equilibrium or, depending on their severity, prevent its occurrence. The conclusion that platforms trend towards dynamic, as opposed to static, equilibrium is contrary to other models which have considered only the effect of wave erosion. The results of this work have important implications for coastal modelling and the estimation of platform lowering for cosmogenic dating.

Historical air photographs, LiDAR, and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) were used to record the movement, from 1956 to 2018, of a clay and clast earthflow in a coastal valley in northwestern Spain. Two procedures were employed. The first tracked changes, in a GIS environment, in the location of eight, easily identified objects on the surface of the deposit (large boulders, topographic lobes, and the foundations of an old hut). The second used DEMs of Difference (DoDs) based on Digital Elevation Models from a 2011 LiDAR flight and two UAV flights in 2016 and 2018 obtained by Structure from Motion-Photogrammetry techniques. While the first procedure provided estimates for earthflow movement over a 62-year period, the second produced more precise data for periods of up to 8-years. The first procedure indicated that the mean rate of movement was 0.48 m•yr-1, increasing from only 0.14 m•yr-1 from 1956 to 1983 to between 0.50 and 0.83 m•yr-1 from 1983 to 2018. Despite some temporal and spatial changes in direction, rates of surface movement were quite uniform on the deposit. The increase in earthflow movement after 1983 may be related to an increase in rainfall, although human activities associated with the removal of a wrecked ship from the nearshore may have been a contributing factor. The role of debuttressing due to the wave-induced removal of lateral support from the toe of the deposit is less clear. While there was no clear relationship between wave erosion and rates of movement, coastal retreat may have triggered changes in the direction and sediment flux in the toe of the deposit. This effect could have been tempered by negative feedback, however, whereby coastal erosion and increased flow activity were countered by the protection afforded by the accumulation of large, dislodged boulders on the beach. Because of this feedback, it is difficult to predict the impact of sea level rise and other elements of climate change along this coast.

This paper reviews the history of conceptual and numerical modelling of hard rock coasts (mean annual cliff erosion typically < 1 mm up to 1 cm) and its use in studying coastal evolution in the past and predicting the impact of the changing climate, and especially rising sea level, in the future. Most of the models developed during the last century were concerned with the development and morphology of shore-normal coastal profiles, lacking any sediment cover, in non-tidal environments. Some newer models now consider the plan shape of rock coasts, and models often incorporate elements, such as the tidally controlled expenditure of wave energy within the intertidal zone, beach morphodynamics, weathering, changes in relative sea level, and the role of wave refraction and sediment accumulation. Despite these advances, the lack of field data, combined with the inherent complexity of rock coasts and uncertainty over their age, continue to inhibit attempts to develop more reliable models and to verify their results.