CoastSnap Valparaíso Region: An Experience of Citizen Science in Chile

Abstract

The coastal areas of Chile are undergoing major transformations associated with changes in the frequency and intensity of coastal storms, alterations in the rainfall regime with a megadrought of more than 10 years, and variations in ocean currents, which have generated a series of impacts related to beach erosion, the alteration of coastal wetlands and the effects on coastal cities. Faced with this problem, it is necessary to incorporate multiple monitoring methodologies that are complementary to existing ones, and that promote the incorporation of communities as fundamental axes in data collection. In this paper, we present the CoastSnap initiative implemented in Chile, whose results have been notorious, despite the short implementation time. Up to July 2023, the communities had shared 350 photographs that have allowed for analysis of the variability of the beaches, allowing for the quantification of variations on average up to 45 m wide in some of their beaches.

Keywords

• coastal erosion
• CoastSnap
• citizen science
• climate change