LITTOSAT

LITTOSAT will provide managers of coastal territories and marine protected areas with a dashboard for monitoring the spatial evolution of coastal vegetation in near-real time, fed by new data from satellite images. The project will propose new satellite products, a visualisation interface and change detection functions.

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Overview of LITTOSAT satellite products: mosaics of high tide, low tide, and vegetation index images over the Littoral (Roscoff and Ile de Batz, Brittany, France). © Hytech imaging, contient des données Copernicus Sentinel 2 (2020) modifiées

Coastline monitored by satellite

OVERVIEW

LITTOSAT will contribute to the knowledge and monitoring of the state of foreshore habitats (part of the coastline periodically covered by the tide) and shallow waters, by providing new satellite products on coastal habitats:

Mosaics of high and low tide images, systematically at regional scales, with a seasonal update frequency and at a spatial resolution of 10m, called high spatial resolution (HRS). These products are called HRS composite products.
High added value products, providing monthly information on the nature of the seabed, the depth of shallow waters, and turbidity over 2 study areas. These products are called HRS monitoring products.
Exploratory satellite products on areas of particular interest, taking advantage of the very high spatial resolution (VHRT) and/or the high update frequency (weekly).

All these satellite products will be referenced in the catalogues of the regional Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) and also easily accessible through a light, simple, intuitive and open source web visualisation application called Littoviz. In this way the regional satellite products and tools developed by LITTOSAT will be easily replicable in other regions, and available in accordance with the European INSPIRE Directive.

Overview of the Littoviz visualisation application to display and compare satellite products from the LITTOSAT project. ©Hytech imaging, contient des données Copernicus Sentinel-2 (2020) modifiées.

LITTOSAT will provide seasonal change detection functions, at the regional scale for the composite products, and over the 2 study areas for the monitoring products. The project will assess the feasibility of establishing very recent change maps, based on the latest available Sentinel 2 images, or change maps at THRS over areas of particular interest, providing new data for monitoring the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on habitats of interest such as seagrass beds, algal belts on rocky plains, or the proliferation of invasive species.

In order to facilitate the appropriation and adoption of the products and tools by users, the LITTOSAT project will offer resources(documentation, tutorials) and support (webinar, training) for the agents of the partner services (Regional Nature Park of Armorique, French Biodiversity Office, departmental directorate of territories, etc.).

LITTOSAT will thus contribute to the following two issues: how to assess the impact of climate change and human activities on coastal intertidal and shallow water habitats, and how to evaluate public policies aimed at protecting biodiversity in these areas?

Application site(s)

France :

Brittany
Normandy
The study areas for the monitoring products will be the Parc naturel Marin d'Iroise (PNMI) and the Rade de Brest, a Natura 2000 site managed by the Parc Naturel Régional d'Armorique (PNRA).

DATA

Satellite

Sentinel-2
Pléiades
Planet

Other

Mapping of existing habitats (sea grass beds, rocky flats, algal belts)
Regulatory Anchorage Areas

RESULTS - FINAL PRODUCTS

Since December 2022, two demonstrators have been freely available:
👉 Littosat Bretagne
👉 Littosat Normandie

Regularly updated satellite products giving access to new information on intertidal and shallow water habitats, homogeneously over the rregional coastal territory for composite products (seasonal regional mosaics in natural colours, in infrared colours, and vegetation index of the emergent part of the foreshore) and over the 2 study areas for monitoring products ( bottom reflectance, terrestrial and submarine vegetation indexes) ; and on an ad hoc basis in sensitive areas (specific habitats of Natura 2000 sites and marine protected areas) thanks to very high resolution commercial data from the Planet constellation. The products may be supplemented locally by Pleiades data when very high resolution is required at key periods.

Distribution services for these satellite products in standard Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) formats, and therefore interoperable with existing land management tools, and compliant with the INSPIRE directive.

Change detection maps at regional scales for foreshore vegetation and on the two study areas for the nature of the bottom, depth and turbidity. These change maps will enable managers to cross-reference satellite data with climatic data and socio-economic data (management zones such as regulatory anchorage zones, intervention zones to combat the proliferation of invasive species, protection zones for habitats of interest such as seagrass beds). According to the observatory of needs set up as part of the Regional Copernicus initiative (GIS BreTel), the possibility of cross-referencing satellite data and business data is essential for users to appropriate the satellite data.

A web-based visualisation platform to disseminate the results to other potential end-users, based on a fully open-source tool, duplicable and already used in other regions.

RELATED PROJECTS

Regional Copernicus (GIS BreTel, FPA Caroline Herschel)
Mareos (MARitime Earth Observation Services), Evaluation of the interest of Copernicus data for the monitoring of indicators in the framework of the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD); Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique / BRGM).
Littoviz Marine Natural Park of the Gulf of Lion