Bagdanavičiūtė, I., Kelpšaitė, L., Daunys, D.
Assessment of shoreline changes along the Lithuanian Baltic
Sea coast during the period 1947–2010
Shoreline position measurements at various time instants can
be used to derive quantitative estimates of the rate of shoreline change and
help to understand the magnitude and timing of erosion or accretion processes.
Aerial photographs and topographic maps from 1947 to 2010 have been used to
derive instantaneous shoreline positions, from which shoreline change rates
have been estimated using statistical parameters: shoreline change envelope
(SCE), net shoreline movement (NSM), and end-point rate (EPR). Non-metric
multi-dimensional scaling (nMDS) has been applied for shoreline classification
into dynamic sectors. This study was carried out along 90.6 km of Lithuanian
Baltic Sea coast over the time span 1947 to 2010. The study demonstrated that
combined use of cartographic data and statistical methods could be a reliable
method for shoreline related studies. Application of such data seems to be
trustworthy in qualitative monitoring of shoreline changes, while it is the
only available method for long term studies.