What's happening to the beaches: Kristina Pikelj and the coastal erosion
Print page
Kristina Pikelj, one of the first researchers in the outgoing scheme of NEWFELPRO, is currently in return phase of her project „Resilience of artificial gravel beach and implication for coastal management (RAGBICOM)“ at the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb. Kristina, who has a PhD in Marine Sciences, has implemented her project during the outgoing phase at the University of Lancaster under the mentorship of Dr. Suzana Ilić.
Focus of her project is coastal erosion, one of the major global environmental problems resulting in beach loss. Natural and artificial gravel beaches have great significance in preventing beach erosion and enhancement of tourism. Proposed project will assess the resilience of artificial gravel beaches to significant storm events by novel application of computer vision techniques (structure-frommotion – multiview stereo -SfM-MVS). The overall aim of the project is to improve understanding of artificial gravel beach resilience to significant storm events by comparing it to natural gravel beaches under the same climate and wave conditions. Obtained results will serve as first guidelines for strategic coastal monitoring to enable coastal management in Croatia.
Throughout her project, Kristina had an oral presentation at the 6th Croatian water conference, presentation at the 1st Congress of Sustainable Tourism (Croatia), 3 workshops with school children and wider public in Dugi Rat (Croatia), preparation of an ERASMUM project along with a MEDFLOOD workshop and a presentation at the 5th Croatian Geological congress. She will also attend the upcoming 3rd Coastal and Maritime Mediterranean Conference 2015 in Italy. She has also published two popular scientific article written for The Conversation and The Time.
Focus of her project is coastal erosion, one of the major global environmental problems resulting in beach loss. Natural and artificial gravel beaches have great significance in preventing beach erosion and enhancement of tourism. Proposed project will assess the resilience of artificial gravel beaches to significant storm events by novel application of computer vision techniques (structure-frommotion – multiview stereo -SfM-MVS). The overall aim of the project is to improve understanding of artificial gravel beach resilience to significant storm events by comparing it to natural gravel beaches under the same climate and wave conditions. Obtained results will serve as first guidelines for strategic coastal monitoring to enable coastal management in Croatia.
Throughout her project, Kristina had an oral presentation at the 6th Croatian water conference, presentation at the 1st Congress of Sustainable Tourism (Croatia), 3 workshops with school children and wider public in Dugi Rat (Croatia), preparation of an ERASMUM project along with a MEDFLOOD workshop and a presentation at the 5th Croatian Geological congress. She will also attend the upcoming 3rd Coastal and Maritime Mediterranean Conference 2015 in Italy. She has also published two popular scientific article written for The Conversation and The Time.
In addition, here are Kristina's photos from the workshops with school children in Dugi Rat-Jesenice primary school in February 2015 (workshop with primary students included two exercises in the classroom, including two oral presentations and one practical exercise simulating coastal erosion in the plastic container. Additional exercise was held on the local beach, where students learned about origin of the sediment and its fate under various weather conditions):
Workshop for secondary students visiting Lancaster University during Blackburn College Science Day in September 2015:
