Utility of remote sensing technology for determining characteristics of sandy beaches

In this study, four sandy beaches located on the western part of the Turkish Black Sea coast were selected to determine the characteristics of sand. Hence, field studies were conducted and remotely sensed data taken simultaneously were utilized.A hand spectroradiometer was used to measure reflectance values in the beaches. Various monitoring stations for spectral reflectance measurements and sand sampling stations for moisture content analyses were selected on each of the beaches. The sand samples were further sieved in the laboratory to obtain the grain size distribution. The spectral reflectance measurements of the beaches and the grain size distributions were compared with the classified IKONOS satellite images obtained simultaneously with the field surveys. Reflectance values showed similarities between the beaches. Classification done by using the grain size distributions put forth the areal-based information on sand size characteristics.