RS2 – Coastal Erosion Analysis with Landsat – Final Project

Matthew Biller

03/15/2019

Introduction:

This final lab was designed to evaluate and determine if any costal erosion has occurred near Newport,
OR using landsat imagery and coastal erosion analysis methods. The final lab was completely open-
ended, I decided to analyze coastal erosion/change, this topic was an area of interest to me that I had
not attempted yet. The analysis takes place from 2001 – 2018, with landsat imagery collected during
2001, 2010, 2013, and 2018. It should be known that due to the unavailability of some landsat images,
due mostly to cloud cover, that the month for each collected year is not the same, which may impact
the final results.

The coastal erosion analysis spanned around the extent of Newport, with areas of beach heavily, and
lightly used for foot-traffic, this gives a well-rounded idea of costal erosion occurring in areas of higher
and lesser use. The climate in Newport is heavily influenced by rain and wind that develops from the
Pacific Ocean. Newport receives an average of 82 inches of rain and 156 sunny days per year. The
temperature ranges from mid-60’s in the summer to low 40’s in the winter.

Extent of coastal analysis

(RGB color square), with
real color image from 2018
Landsat 8.

Data & Methods:

Satellite imagery and individual bands were collected from Landsat 7 for imagery from 2001 and 2010,
and Landsat 8 for imagery from 2013 and 2018, all imagery was collected at 30-meter resolution. After
satellite imagery was collected and adjusted to show true colors with proper brightness and color
display, the data had to be cropped to a smaller extent to allow for more efficient processing and
accurate coastal analysis. From there, each cropped landsat image had to be classified using the Image
Classification toolbar. Each image was given four supervised classes: Beach, Water, Vegetation, and
Land, these classes were each given a large number of samples to accurately train the classification tool.
The purpose was to classify each image correctly to be able to visualize and extract information on the
Beach class, to prepare and observe for any coastal erosion / change.

Sample image of classifications with

legend, 2013.

From there, each newly classified image had to go through more pre-processing to clean up
classifications to better analyze the data. The Majority Filter tool was used to generalize the classified
data, this tool replaces cells in a layer based on the values of the majority neighboring cells. From there,
the Boundary Clean tool was used to smooth the boundaries between classes by expanding the
boundaries and then shrinking them back to their original size. Doing this helps to remove stray pixels
that may have grouped incorrectly with other pixels, this helps to create more accurate values before
beginning to analyze the coast.

2013 Classified image after Majority

Filter and Boundary Clean tools.
After each image was successfully cleaned, the values for each Beach classification could be observed in
the attribute table. These values were then used to perform a percent change from each year to
determine if costal erosion may have occurred. The percent change was calculated by hand with the
following values and formula:

Finally, an NDVI analysis was conducted on each initially cropped image. The NDVI was conducted for
the purpose of adding more information to the final result of the coastal erosion analysis, having values
determining if vegetation change occurred may help to reason if coastal erosion occurred along (or
against) the NDVI changes.

Results:

The output data consisted of percent change values and NDVI calculations. The percent change values
are as follows:

2001 to 2010: -0.53%

2010 to 2013: 13.65%
2013 to 2018: -16.50%

Although these values do not accurately represent coastal erosion due to their large percent increases
and decreases, when these numbers were combined to determine the average percent change, the
value was determined to be -1.22%. This value is believable when considering coastal erosion, this
would translate to mean that about 1.22% of Newport’s coast for this area of analysis saw a loss in its’
coast.
The resulting Beach values observing change at each calculated year.

The NDVI calculations resulted in values that ranged from .50 to .96, NDVI values are calculated within a
range from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating high levels of vegetation, this indicates that vegetation change did
occur at certain time periods, however this could have been due to seasonal changes depending on
when the landsat imagery was collected.

Resulting NDVI
Values.
The resulting table indicates a steady drop from 2001 to 2013, with a slight increase in 2018. These
values may indicate seasonal change as well as an overall decrease in vegetative values over the last 17
years. The initial value at 2001 of .96 indicates high levels of vegetation, however, the values moving
forward remain in the .6 to .5 range which now indicates lower levels of vegetation.

Skills for this lab included classifying landsat images to accurately separate beach pixels from other land
types to isolate this for analysis. Skills also included using the Majority Filter and Boundary Clean tools
which helped with pre-processing and cleaning up the created classes. Skills also included using
ArcMap’s Raster Calculator tool to correctly calculate the NDVI values for each year. Finally, simple
tables were created to better visualize the change in values for the Newport coast and NDVI values.

Screenshots:

2001 RGB extent image

2010 RGB extent image

2013 RGB extent image

2018 RGB extent image

2018 RGB extent image with

training samples and sample
legend
2001 classification image

2010 classification image

2013 classification image

2018 classification image

2001 cleaned classification image

2010 cleaned classification image

2013 cleaned classification image

2018 cleaned classification image – notice the new pink classification, a class ArcMap created during the
Majority Filter analysis, this was deemed as ocean sediment and not included in coastal analysis.
2001 NDVI layer with values

2010 NDVI later with values

2013 NDVI layer with values

2018 NDVI later with values

Conclusion:

Despite the image classification and beach value differencing, along with the NDVI calculations, it was
unable to be (accurately) determined if costal erosion near Newport, OR had significantly occurred. The
NDVI values did not positively correlate with the changes in the Beach classification, increases in
vegetation can help to prevent coastal erosion as the roots of coastal plants help to anchor sand and
prevent it from being carried off by erosion. However, the changes in NDVI values do not line up with
the changing coastal values, leaving the NDVI analyses uncertain towards their prevention of coastal
erosion for Newport. Moving forward, the accuracy of the coastal data accusation can also not be
determined, due to the timing of the tide, certain values that were given the classification of Beach may
have been waves closer to the shore, which could have skewed the Beach data. However, the Majority
Filter tool did create a new classification that was undetermined when preforming a Supervised
Classification which separated the Beach classification from another class that spanned between the
coast and the ocean, which was most likely sediments in the ocean that were originally classified as
Beach. This extra classification helped to isolate the Beach values even more before preforming a
percent change analysis. Therefore, although the concluding Beach values may have not helped to
determine if coastal erosion had occurred, the use of the Majority Filter tool helped to isolate the Beach
classification for a more accurate analysis.

To further this coastal erosion analysis, I would collect data at more equal-interval years, at a similar
collection data and time to ensure that seasonality and tide changes were not impacting the final
results. I would also lessen my extent area to ensure that coastal erosion could be determined for a
small area before expanding to a larger coastal analysis, to ensure accuracy in the data analysis. It would
also be useful to implement another method to determine the overall change in the Beach values,
calculating a percent change analysis by hand was useful and accurate, but another analysis method
would be helpful as well.