Dataset on beach dynamics and beach-casts appearance at the Northern coast of the Sambia Peninsula, the Baltic Sea (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia)

Published: 15 July 2021| Version 5 | DOI: 10.17632/9xwh2hg89x.5
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Description

Kaliningrad Oblast, the westernmost region of Russia, suffers from coastal erosion (Łabuz et al., 2018). Sandy beaches are narrow, especially at the Northern shore of the Sambia Peninsula, where the rate of coastal retreat is about 0.5–1.5 m/year (Karmanov et al., 2018), the width of the beach (10–25 m in average) varies in time, the shore is partly protected by old groins (Prushak et al., 2014). The issue of the beach cast is linked to the problems of marine litter and microplastic pollution (Chubarenko I. et al., 2020) and seegrass dumping (Chubarenko B. et al., 2021). To monitor the dynamics of the beach and the release of beach casts on it, the webcam was installed at the northern shore of the Sambia Peninsula (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). Primary information (the raw images) is not presented in the database. The secondary data developed after the processing of images are presented in a tabular table, it contains several sheets. Sheet 1 (named "Beach-Cast_data") shows the presence or absence of beach and beach cast; it has 5 columns: Date (shooting date, format YYYY-MM-DD), BeachW (beach present/absent west of groin), BeachE (beach present/absent east of groin), CastW (beach cast present/absent west of groin), CastE (beach cast present/absent east of groin). The absence of the beach or beach cast is designated as "0". The presence of the beach or beach cast is designated as "1", but if the beach cast occupied more the 25% of study area, then it is indicated as "2". Sheet 2 (named "Cast_areas") shows the area occupied by beach cast within the boundaries of the study area; it has 5 columns: Date (shooting date, format YYYY-MM-DD), CastWest means beach cast west of groin and presented by two columns "area" (m2) and percentage ("%"), the CastEast means beach cast east of groin and presented by two columns "area" (m2) and percentage ("%"). Sheet 3 (named "Legend") shows legend described above. References: Chubarenko B., Woelfel J., Hofmann J., Aldag S., Beldowski J., Burlakovs J., Garrels T., Gorbunova J., Guizani S., Kupczyk A., Kotwicki L., Domnin D., Gajewska M., Hogland W., Kołecka K., Nielsen J., Schubert H. Converting beach wrack into a resource as a challenge for the Baltic Sea (an overview). (2021) Ocean & Coastal Management, 200, 105413. Chubarenko I., Esiukova E., Khatmullina L., Lobchuk O., Grave A., Kileso A., Haseler M. (2020) From macro to micro, from patchy to uniform: Analyzing plastic contamination along and across a sandy tide-less coast. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 156, 111198. Łabuz T.A., Grunewald R., Bobykina V., Chubarenko B., Česnulevičius A., Bautrėnas A., Morkūnaitė R., Tõnisson H. (2018) Coastal dunes of the Baltic Sea shores: a review. Quaestiones Geographicae, 37(1), 47-71. Prushak Z., Ostrovsky R., Babakov A.N., Chubarenko B.V. (2014) The main principles of bank stabilization by the groins. Russian Journal of Geomorpholgy, 14(3), 91-105.

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Photography is made several times a day during daylight hours (at 9, 12, 15 hours, with a long daylight, the shooting range is expanded to 6, 18 and 21 hours). The pictures show the beach and beach cast on it. One best image was selected for each day. The image covers the shore segment of 40 m with the short groin (25-30 m depending on the position of coastline) in center of the monitored shore segment. The webcam was programmed to automatically shoot regular photographs and transmit the images remotely to the server of LCSS. Data covered period is 01.11.2019 – 31.10.2020. The secondary analysis of images was carried out in several stages. At the first stage, information on the presence of the beach and discarded beach cast on both sides of the groin is visually recorded. The data are entered in the corresponding table. Next, those images were selected on which beach cast were recorded. Based on these images, instrumental calculation of the areas occupied by beach cast was carried out. Beach cast was defined (Chubarenko B. et al., 2021) as “all material deposited at the wash zone of a beach by wind, wave and particularly tidal forces”. It consists of beach wrack, terrestrial debris, litter and living animals inhabiting it, excluding materials such as sand, stones or pebbles, and even amber, which is regarded as a resident part of the beach and deposited there over a long period”. The initiative to install webcam was implemented by Laboratory for Coastal Systems Study of the Atlantic Branch of Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of Russian Academy of Sciences (LCSS AB IO RAS). The initiative was coordinated by J.Gorbunova, technical realization was fulfilled by A.Grave, with partial help of D.Domnin (all are employed in LCSS). The obtained dataset of primary images is in the internal use of the LCSS. The present “Dataset on beach dynamics and beach casts appearance at the Northern coast of the Sambia Peninsula, the Baltic Sea (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia)” contains the secondary data based on primary photos and developed using the procedure to calculate the areas occupied by beach and beach casts (developed by D.Domnin). Installation of the webcam, automatic transmitting of the images, their storing and providing them to users were carried out within the framework of the project #R090 CONTRA Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. The processing of the images was made within the theme No 0128-2021-0012 of the State Assignment of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of Russian Academy of Sciences.

Categories

Environmental Monitoring, Seaweed, Coastal Erosion

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