Construction of a Digital Elevation Model of the Holderness Coast using the waterline method and Airborne Thematic Mapper data

This paper explores the potential for using the waterline method with Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) data to construct a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of a steep and narrow beach. ATM images acquired at different stages of the tide were processed to delineate accurately the position of the shoreline. The sea surface is regarded as an altimeter, the altitude of which is determined using a hydrodynamic model. Geometrically registered shorelines were assigned heights using elevations predicted by the model. The heighted shorelines obtained were interpolated using universal block kriging to produce a DEM of the area. A DEM was also produced from transect data acquired for the beach. The shoreline DEM is compared with the transect DEM in order to assess the accuracy of the former. It is also shown that a more accurate DEM can be generated by cokriging the combined shoreline and transect data.