Use of RFID Tracer Pebbles in Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management

Coastal Partners (formally Eastern Solent Coastal Partnership) have developed an innovative in-house method of tracking the movement of coarse shingle material using radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged pebbles, to help support Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM). These pebbles, alongside analysis of Regional Monitoring Programme data, provide valuable information on rates and direction of sediment transport. Findings can be used to aid the understanding of local coastal processes, in turn supporting coastal management decisions through informing local beach recycling campaigns, feeding into engineering scheme design stages, and highlighting key sites of importance such as drift divides and convergence zones in the coastal environment.