The Vale of Glamorgan Councils WCMC team reach Ocean Hackathon 2023 Grand Final

Coastal process scientists from the WCMC (Wales Coastal Monitoring Centre), a Welsh Government funded organisation, hosted by the Vale of Glamorgan Council have placed in the grand final of the Ocean Hackathon held in Brest, France, having won the Plymouth University leg of the competition.

Over a demanding weekend, teams from around the globe collaborated on developing innovative solutions to pressing Ocean challenges.

The team sought to use Ai to analyse beach photos and quantify sediment change whilst linking changes to meteorological activity. 

The International Grand Finale took place on December 19, 2023, at the Atelier des Capucins in Brest, where they competed against 13 other teams, each vying for recognition and one of the three prestigious prizes offered by the Ocean Hackathon 2023 Ambassadors.

The WCMC is responsible for managing the collection and dissemination of strategic coastal monitoring data for the whole of Wales and is led by a consortium formed of Vale of Glamorgan Council, Gwynedd Council, Conwy County Borough Council and the WLGA. 

Programme manager, Gwyn Nelson, has successfully developed a small but high performing team, actively promoting innovation as well as constant improvements in the team’s day-to-day work.  A recent collaboration with the Office for National Statistics, led by Ben Ranson (Coastal Process Scientist) has also resulted in the rapid development of new web-based tools to help interrogate beach profile data, not only benefitting users in Wales but also leading the way amongst the wider network of UK regional coastal monitoring centres. 

The WCMC also assists coastal risk management authorities around Wales procure specialist surveys outside of the strategic monitoring programme, with the most recent example a drone-based LiDAR survey of the cliffs around Penarth – delivering a colourised point cloud containing over 261 million data points – that the Council’s in house flood and coastal protection team will use to monitor and manage this constantly evolving coastline.

We would love to have as many new images collected via CoastSnap if anyone is visiting Barry Island, Penarth Esplanade or travelling further afield.