BMON - Citizen science project for beach monitoring

The BMON project (Beach MONitoring) is aimed at monitoring the coastline in the heart of Songkhla city, southern part of Thailand, with the involvement of local citizens. It can be expressed that this is one of the pioneer... [ view full abstract ]

The BMON project (Beach MONitoring) is aimed at monitoring the coastline in the heart of Songkhla city, southern part of Thailand, with the involvement of local citizens. It can be expressed that this is one of the pioneer citizen science project in Thailand. Since 2015 a beach profiling method was informally proposed to the group of active young citizens called “Beach for life” in Songkhla. Beach profile survey bring about a better understanding of coastal processes by giving quantitative data on the spatial/temporal evolution of beaches, which is important  for coastal management. Since the citizen science approach is using for this project, the methodology should be simple and fit with the capacity of all participants who have different background of education. The profiling method used to this project is based on the physical principle of fluid. All simple and low-cost homemade instruments made by citizen scientists at the beginning stage and compare with the standard techniques.  About 70 participants were invited to the training workshop. The small group on-site trainings were also organized by the group of leaders several times. Every month, participants carry out this observation in three beaches along coast of Songkhla with the total length of 19 kilometers divided into 40 sections. This pioneer project provides the opportunity for local citizens to participate in coastal management issues and has raised public awareness of their coastal environment.  Moreover, the senses of beach ownership have been developed among participants.