Analysis of morphological changes of the island of Hvar beaches using archive maps, old photographs and UAV (Eastern Adriatic Coast, Croatia)

Abstract

Beaches are dynamic coastal forms. However, nowadays, natural processes are intertwined with anthropogenic influences. The island of Hvar has 247 beaches from which we selected those which evolution could be studied by means of repeat photography method using archive maps and old photographs. More than 150 old photographs dating between the 1900s and 1980s have been collected and analyzed. The recent period is studied using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

In total 12 beaches have been selected for precise study. The benchmarks from old photographs were marked and geolocated during the fieldwork using GNSS Trimble receiver. In November 2020, all locations were recorded by quadcopter DJI Phantom 4 Pro v2.0 with approximately 80% overlapping. On each beach, 6 - 12 ground control points (GCP), mostly benchmarks from the old photographs, were marked and measured. Data collected from UAV has been generated by photogrammetric techniques in ESRI Drone2Map software. Orthophoto and digital surface model (DSM) has been processed with a spatial resolution of 0,02 m and 0,1 m for the digital elevation model (DEM). All analyses were made using the ArcGIS Pro software. In this work, the analysis will be presented on two sites: Mina sand beach, formed in Aeolian deposits, on the northern side of the island and Mola Milna gravel beach, found on the southern side. Beaches have been studied in three points in time, in the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st century.

On the Franciscan Cadastre (1834), Mina beach was mapped as an individual cadastral parcel with an area of 222 Klafter Quadrimeter (written in the Cadastral supplement), that is 799 m². Recalculating in GIS we obtained a similar value, that is, 782 m². The beach area from the beginning of the 20^th century was reconstructed from old photographs and was approximated to 450 m². Consequently, since 1834 the beach area reduced by ~43%. In 2020, the area further drops to 226 m², so its surface diminishes by 55% since the beginning of the 20th century or even 72% from 1834.

In 1834 the Mola Milna beach was ~1073 m², ~900 m² in the 1950s (16% smaller) and finally 802 m² in 2020 (11% less than in the 1950s, or 27% smaller compared to 1834).

Thus, we observed that during the last two centuries the sand beach Mina reduced for more than 2/3 of its size since 1834, while the gravel beach Mola Milna reduced for around 1/3. Similar results have been observed previously on the Zogon gravel beach which lost ½ of its size since the 1960s. Even if the reconstructions of the beach area from the Cadaster maps and old photographs are less accurate than the model generated from UAV photos, obtained values clearly reveal the trend of beach erosion during the studied period.

This research was made with the support of the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2019-04-9445).