BOMS (Beach Optical Monitoring System) is an autonomous beach imaging system that can monitor high frequency beach (and shoreline) changes. Through this system, optical information is acquired through sets of synchronised digital video cameras suitably located, calibrated and geo-referenced, processed through custom-made algorithms.
The system is deployed at the pilot experimental sites of Gerakas and Katerini, obtaining beach imagery at hourly 15 min bursts during daylight. These images are processed to provide time lapse images (TIMEX) and variance images (SIGMA) . The TIMEX and SIGMA images provide (hourly) information on the position of the coastline and the nearshore morphological features, whereas processing of the time-stack images generate time series of swash excursions, and wave run-up statistics and spectra. The optical information is also used to assess nearshore bathymetry changes using a wave propagation model and the dispersion relation. The system’s morphological observations are calibrated against data obtained by RTK-DGPS topographical surveys and 3-D laser scanner observations.
General flowchart of the BOMS components:
Post-processing:
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| Control points calibration | image cleaning |
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| 3d mosaic creation | focusing |
Exported image types:
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| Timex image | Sigma image | Real-time image |