“Where has the sand gone?” is a popular refrain in Sennen after a storm!
Well, now a new monitoring station set up on the seafront in Sennen gives ordinary people, young an old, a chance to become community scientists, helping to collect data which will be used to study the cyclical and longer term changes in their local beach and coastline.
Sennen beach is one of forty locations around the Cornish coastline designated as a data collection site for the Making Space for Sand Project.
The aim of this project is to collect data on the changes in local shorelines to increase the understanding of problems associated with sea level rise, coastal change and coastal erosion. With better understanding, the initiative hopes to encourage more sustainable and ecosystem-centred management practices.
The project is using exciting and innovative methods of information gathering, and the data collected will be analysed using cutting-edge modelling programmes.
One of these methods uses a phone stand and sign, which invites passers-by to ‘snap and share’ – and this type of station has recently been installed at Sennen.
The photos taken will capture a valuable record of the changes at Sennen beach, helping scientists to understand erosion and recovery cycles and to predict and explain the changes we are likely to see more of in future.
Local people will get a chance to see all the data collected at special community engagement events, and hopefully this will help residents and landowners understand and support plans and interventions to help their coastal areas adapt to future change.
Have you taken a photo for the project? The ‘Snap Station’ is located at the top of the slipway opposite the Old Success Pub. Get snapping!
