Studies of shoreline evolution are crucial for assessing beach accretion or retreat, influencing erosion management strategies and coastal hazard adaptation plans. With the advent of GIS technologies and satellite imagery, analyses of coastal dynamics have become faster and more accurate. However, there are still no plugins for QGIS that fully automate these analyses based on Transect-Based Analysis (TBA) methods. The Coastal Dynamics Analyzer (CDA) is a new plugin for QGIS, developed to provide an automatic method for Shoreline Change Analysis (SCA), improving the accuracy and speed of the analysis. The CDA plugin is written in PyQGIS (version v.1.0.0). It allows you to define a piecewise polynomial baseline and generate transects for shoreline change analysis. CDA allows commonly used rate-of change such as End Point Rate (EPR), Net Shoreline Movement (NSM), Shoreline Change Envelope (SCE), and Linear Regression Rate (LRR) to be calculated, providing reports in .csv and shapefile formats.
Easily installed using the QGIS plugin manager or as a Python script, the plugin is based on QGIS algorithms and scientific libraries. It provides an intuitive environment for analysing coastal transects and, due to its speed and accuracy, make it suitable for regional studies and for providing parameters needed for erosion management strategies. In addition, CDA is distinguished by its ability to perform detailed and automated analyses, supporting the scientific community, industry professionals, and coastal managers in monitoring coastal changes, identifying erosion-prone areas, and evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation measures.
See User Manual and start using CDA! CDA_User_Manual.pdf
Giorgio Manno, Carlo Lo Re, Mirko Basile, Giuseppe Ciraolo, A new shoreline change assessment approach for erosion management strategies, Ocean & Coastal Management, Volume 225, 2022, 106226, ISSN 0964-5691, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106226. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569122002022)
Please when cite CDA plugin, cite both methodology work (Manno et al., 2022) and plugin
paper (Scala et al., 2024):
Scala, Pietro and Manno, Giorgio and Ciraolo, Giuseppe, Coastal Dynamics Analyzer (Cda): A Qgis Plugin for Transect Based Analysis of Coastal Erosion. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4918062
For more information about CDA plugin, contact:
Pietro Scala, [email protected]
Giorgio Manno, [email protected]
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo (UNIPA) Sicily, Italy.
