Surveying Wembury

We regularly survey the beaches around the South West to monitor how high, or low, they are.  Wembury, in South Devon, is one of the sites we measure at least twice a year.  We survey most of our beaches in the autumn and in the spring, after the majority of the storms have passed through.

We always measure exactly the same cross sections (called ‘profiles’) of the beach, in order to provide us with comparable datasets.  Using GPS (satellite) equipment, we survey the height of the beach to an accuracy of 3 cm.   Each survey increases the value of our topographic datasets – allowing engineers, scientists, and general beach users to track important changes in beach volume and profile shape over an ever-increasing time period.  For Wembury we have datasets going back to 2007!

The video above shows how we walk the survey lines. Once this is processed by the team we end up with a cross section that looks like the below.

To see all the latest profile charts for Wembury, and explore how it has changed recently and since 2007, please go to the latest chart page.

Wembury is special to us as it’s our first CoastSnap site. Since 2019, it has had a metal smartphone camera cradle. This allows members of the public to capture the beach state via photographs.  Once submitted, the images are added to our online repository.  Our fantastic ‘Community Scientists’ contribute towards a high frequency, long term record of beach conditions.  From these photos, we can see shorter-term changes due to storms, as well as variations in wave and tide conditions. The GPS topographic surveys and CoastSnap images act as complementary datasets. The quantitative values of GPS measured beach volume help to interpret the qualitative information gained from the photos.

For more information on CoastSnap, visit the Coast Snap Page