A high-resolution 4D terrestrial laser scan dataset of the Kijkduin beach-dune system, The Netherlands
Scientific Data volume 9, Article number: 191 (2022 ) Cite this article
Sandy coasts form the interface between land and sea and their morphologies are highly dynamic. A combination of human and natural forcing results in morphologic changes affecting both nature values and coastal safety. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is a technique enabling near-continuous monitoring of the changing morphology of a sandy beach-dune system with centimetre-order accuracy. In Kijkduin, The Netherlands, a laser scanner sampled one kilometre of coast at hourly intervals for about six months. This resulted in over 4,000 consecutive topographic scans of around one million points each, at decimetre-order point spacing. Analysis of the resulting dataset will offer new insights into the morphological behaviour of the beach-dune system at hourly to monthly time scales, ultimately increasing our fundamental scientific understanding of these complex geographic systems. It further provides the basis for developing novel algorithms to extract morphodynamic and geodetic information from this unique 4D spatiotemporal dataset. Finally, experiences from this TLS setup support the development of improved near-continuous 3D observation of both natural and anthropogenic scenes in general.
Sandy coasts constitute about one third of all coasts in the world and their morphologies are highly dynamic in nature1. Humans have populated these areas for millennia2 and it is estimated that nowadays more than 40% of the world population lives within 100 kilometres from the shore3,4, a percentage which is expected to increase further5. This increasing coastal population has a large influence on coastal systems6,7 due to loss and disturbance of fragile ecosystems8,9, while sea level rise and changing weather patterns, due to climate change, add additional pressure to sandy coasts10,11,12,13. Presently, around 82,500 kilometres of sandy coasts worldwide show retreating coastlines1 amounting to an area14 of about 28,000 km2 which can be linked to human activities15,16,17.
