Australia’s coastline is one of the country’s greatest natural, economic and culturally significant assets, with beach-front infrastructure and coastal environments providing immeasurable value to our society. One of the seven ambitions of the National Marine Science Strategy 2026-20361 is to establish national coastal research infrastructure that provides coordinated evidence on climate-driven changes to our coastal zone. This is reinforced through the priority to expand near-real-time coastal observation and modelling systems to support forecasting, risk assessment and adaptive management.
The Australian Coastline Imaging Network (AusCIN) is a multi-year program within the CoastRI2 initiative, that is contributing to this priority through the establishment of fixed coastline observation infrastructure at a set of diverse reference sites around Australia. AusCIN will establish a network of monitoring stations that provide continuous, near-real-time imagery and baseline data, complimented by the citizen-science program, CoastSnap3. Through improved data accessibility and standardised coastal observation infrastructure implemented at national scale, AusCIN will strengthen understanding, prediction, and response to risks associated with climate variability and change in the coastal zone.
This presentation outlines the AusCIN program across the initial 3-year implementation period 2026-2028, including its contribution to coordinated coastline monitoring and opportunities for collaboration with the broader marine science community.