Submerged dunes and breakwater embayments mapped using wave inversions of shore-mounted marine X-band radar data

Surveying very shallow coastal areas, particularly around coastal defences, can be a logistically difficult and time consuming process. A marine-radar based bathymetry mapping technique has been used to remotely map the embayments around a series of shore-parallel breakwaters at Sea Palling on the south east coast of England during the LEACOAST2 project. The duration of the deployment spanned over 2 years, with the aim of observing any evolution of bathymetric features over that timescale while providing a clear indication of the spatial variability of wave and current patterns contributing to such evolution. The embayments generated by the shore parallel breakwaters at that site are resolved and a field of subtidal dunes with a wavelength of the order of 200m and amplitude around 1m located in approximately 6-10m of water were within the radar field of view and are evident in the remotely sensed bathymetry. Comparisons between bathymetric data obtained using conventional survey techniques and the radar based technique are presented together with measurements of tidal currents mapped using the same remote sensing method and compared with ADCP data during a storm event.