Cam-Era

Introduction

NIWA's Cam-Era system has been specifically developed to provide coastal managers and engineers with a reliable, multi-purpose and cost effective system to minitor beach processes and evolution. It allows for a substantial improvement in the temporal and sptial monitoring of beach processes and evolution at a particular site over traditional monitoring monitoring techniques permitting users to develop a better understanding of nearshore hydro- and morpho-dynamics. 

A pdf brochure of the Cam-Era system is available here.

Applications

The Cam-Era system can be used for a range of shoreline and river monitoring research and operational applications. Examples include:

  • Identifying shoreline position, dune toe and high water mark evolution.
  • Beach volume and width change.
  • Calibration of beach morphology models.
  • Location and movement of sand banks and bars.
  • Intertidal bathymetry mapping.
  • Identifying rip locations and movements and detecting longshore currrents.
  • Nearshore wave statistics.
  • Surf, beach and river mouth bar condition monitoring for navigation.
  • Object counts, such a s human use of boat ramps.
  • River mouth migration.
  • Public education.

Cam-Era users

Cam-Era has benefited from ten years of development with the first systems installed in 1997. Currently there are:

  • Eight sites within New Zealand coordionated by NIWA, but with support from Environment Waikato, Environment Canterbury, Eastland Port and Port Taranaki 
  • A ten camera system at Lowestoft, UK coordinated by the University of East Anglia and Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science.
  • A five camera system at Biscarrosse, France coordinated by the University of Bordeaux.

The Cam-Era package

Hardware: Video Camera, 1/3” CCD (including lens, enclosure, mount and transformer), IBM compatible computer with Microsoft XP Operating System and modem (if required)

Software: Image processing software specifically developed to allow exact measurements to be made off the images. The standard software has been developed to:

  • Collect (daylight time) hourly snapshots, time-stacks and video-averaged images.
  • Archive video-images.
  • Transfer and hourly update of images to a web-site chosen by the purchasing institution
  • Account for lens calibration
  • Image rectification
  • Merge rectified images from more than one video camera
  • Shoreline and sandbar detection

The software can be further “trained” to recognise objects by programming it to look for any change in light intensity or colour in the image. This can allow the software to find and count things such as breaking waves, shadows on un-broken waves, vegetation, people etc.

Installation: Technical support to install the Cam-Era system, calibration of the camera lens to account for distortion and, if a detailed survey is performed, image rectification.

Training and support: Supervised training including image rectification, set-up of the software for shoreline detection, and analysis. Support is provided through access to a Cam-Era user group forum set up to share experience of the Cam-era system and associated ongoing development of the analysis software.

Cam-Era validation

Research applications using the Cam-Era system have been published in peer-reviewed journala and conference proceedings and include:

 

Smith, K. R. and Bryan, K.R., (2007) Monitoring beach volume using a combination of intermittent profiling and video imagery, Journal of Coastal Research. 23, 4, pp 892-898

Coco, G., Payne, G., Bryan, K.R., D. Ramsay, D., and T. Dolphin, T., (2006), The use of video-based systems to monitor shoreline dynamics, Proceedings of the 1st ArabianCoast Conference, Dubai (in press).

Coco, G., Bryan, K.R., Green, M.O., Ruessink, B.G., Turner, I.L., and van Enckevort, I.M.J., (2005), Video observations of shoreline and sandbar coupled dynamics, Proceedings of Coasts and Ports 2005, Adelaide, 471-476.

Bogle, J.A., Bryan, K.R., Black, K.P., Hume, T.M., and Healy, T.R., 2001, Observations of rip formation and evolution, Journal of Coastal Research, SI34, 117-127.

Paterson, A., Hume, T.M., and Healy, T.R., 2001, River mouth morphodynamics on a mixed sand-gravel coast, Journal of Coastal Research, SI34, 288-294.

 

For more information

For more information on the application of the Cam-era system in New Zealand, please visit the main Cam-Era website.

 

For further information, or to discuss a Cam-Era installation, please contact:

Dr Giovanni Coco

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd, PO Box 11115, Hamilton, New Zealand.  Tel: +64 (0) 7 856 1701 , Fax: +64 (0) 7 856 0151, Email: cam-era