Women using satellites to track coastal erosion

Rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms are threatening coastlines, low-lying island states and coastal cities around the world. Ella Al-Shamahi talks to two women from Sri Lanka and France about how they’re using satellites to track coastal erosion and develop strategies to reduce its impact on populations.

Sarah Dole is a Sri Lankan physicist and entrepreneur leading a satellite image analysis project in the Maldives, the world’s lowest lying country, looking at the rate at which beaches erode. She co-founded Invena – a company carrying out research and helping develop technology that aims to preserve low-lying nations.

Anne-Laure Beck is a French geomatic and remote-sensing engineer. She's the EU lead on coastal erosion for the environmental consultancy Argans. They use satellite-based earth observation and geographical information systems to map and monitor environments in order to track coastal erosion and accretion to inform coastal management and protection plans.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

Image: (L) Sarah Dole credit Ali Amir @aliaerials. (R) Anne-Laure Beck credit Anne-Laure Beck.)