Abstract
This paper examines the spatial and temporal variability in the shoreline boundary caused by artificial structures in Songdo Beach of South Korea. Quickbird Images of 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2010 extracted from Google Earth were used to identify changing trends of shoreline boundary. The most significant changes were observed in area where groins were extensively established, inducing the sand beach much narrower than before in almost 75% of the area($15070.72m^2$ in 2003 to $3877.46m^2$ in 2010). The Google Earth made it possible to identify area-wide patterns of shoreline change subject to many different type of artificial structures, which cannot be acquired by traditional field sampling. Groin heights, lengths and profiles can be modified during maintenance operations if the Google Earth monitoring indicates that the initial layout is not operating properly as a physical barrier to control sediment transport. It is anticipated that this research could be used as a valuable reference to confirm the outputs from past field researches for coastal processes to respond to storms in more visual and quantitative manner.
