{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:17:59Z","timestamp":1760235479880,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]],"date-time":"2021-08-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1629849600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The creation and protection of surfing breaks along populated coastlines have become a consideration for many councils and governments as surfing breaks are a major driver of tourism. To assess the surf amenity of surfing breaks, a quantitative and objective assessment method is required. A new wave peel tracking (WPT) method has been developed using a shore-based camera to assess surf amenity by measuring and quantifying potential surfing ride rate, length, duration, speed and direction on a wave-by-wave basis. The wave peel (or \u201ccurl\u201d below the wave peak) is the optimal surfing region on a wave, and each wave peel track represents a surfable ride. Wave peel regions are identified, classified and tracked using traditional and machine learning-based computer vision techniques. The methodology is validated by comparing the rectified wave peel tracks with GPS-measured tracks from surfers in the wave peel regions. The WPT methodology is evaluated with data from a reef and adjacent natural beach at the Gold Coast, Australia. The reef produced longer ride lengths than the nearshore region and showed a consistent breaking location along the reef crest. Spatial maps of the wave peel tracks show the influence of tides on the wave breaking patterns and intensity. The WPT algorithm provides a robust, automated method for quantifying surf amenity to provide baseline data for surf break conservation. The methodology has potential uses to verify numerical modelling of surf breaks and to assess the impact of coastal development on surf breaks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13173372","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]],"date-time":"2021-08-25T23:25:50Z","timestamp":1629933950000},"page":"3372","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Wave Peel Tracking: A New Approach for Assessing Surf Amenity and Analysis of Breaking Waves"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9366-8875","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Thompson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Ivan","family":"Zelich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mathematical Sciences Institute, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia"}]},{"given":"Evan","family":"Watterson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bluecoast Consulting Engineers Pty Ltd., Newcastle, NSW 2300, Australia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7040-9643","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tom E.","family":"Baldock","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Smith, J. (2021, June 21). Another Fine Wave Destroyed! (This Time, In Bali). Available online: https:\/\/stabmag.com\/news\/another-perfect-wave-destroyed-this-time-in-bali\/."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"539","DOI":"10.2112\/07-0958.1","article-title":"Research-Based Surfing Literature for Coastal Management and the Science of Surfing\u2014A Review","volume":"25","author":"Scarfe","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Coast. Res."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"(2021, June 21). Endangered Waves. Available online: https:\/\/www.surfrider.org.au\/programs\/endangered-waves\/."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Mucha, N. (2021, June 21). It\u2019s Official Gold Coast is the 8th World Surfing Reserve. Available online: http:\/\/www.goldcoastworldsurfingreserve.com\/."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Walker, J., Palmer, R., and Kukea, J. (1972, January 10\u201314). Recreational surfing on Hawaiian reefs. Proceedings of the 13th Coastal Engineering Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada.","DOI":"10.9753\/icce.v13.147"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Scarfe, B., Elwany, M., Mead, S., and Black, K. (2003, January 23\u201325). The science of surfing waves and surfing breaks: A review. Proceedings of the Artificial Surfing Reefs 2003: The 3rd International Conference, Raglan, New Zealand."},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"115","article-title":"Design of the Gold Coast Reef for Surfing, Public Amenity and Coastal Protection: Surfing Aspects","volume":"29","author":"Black","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Coast. Res."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Lewis, J., Hunt, S., and Evans, T. (2015, January 11\u201313). Quantification of Surfing Amenity For Beach Value And Management. Proceedings of the Coastal Conference, Forster, Australia."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Scarfe, B. (2002). Categorising Surfing Manoeuvres Using Wave and Reef Characteristics. [Master\u2019s Thesis, The University of Waikato]."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Moores, A. (2001). Using Video Images to Quantify Wave Sections and Surfer Parameters. [Master\u2019s Thesis, The University of Waikato]."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Weppe, S., and Shand, T. (2019, January 10\u201313). Modelling Surf Break Wave Mechanics with SWASH\u2014An application to Mangamaunu Point Break (Kaik\u014dura, New Zealand). Proceedings of the Australasian Coasts & Ports Conference, Hobart, Australia."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Mortensen, S. (2021, June 21). Protecting and Enhancing Surf Amenity. Available online: https:\/\/www.dhigroup.com\/global\/news\/2015\/4\/protecting-and-enhancing-surf-amenity."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"547","article-title":"Digitization of Wave Run-up Using Video Records","volume":"5","author":"Aagaard","year":"1989","journal-title":"J. Coast. Res."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"95","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)WW.1943-5460.0000068","article-title":"Depth Inversion in the Surf Zone with Inclusion of Wave Nonlinearity Using Video-Derived Celerity","volume":"137","author":"Yoo","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Waterw. Port Coast. Ocean Eng."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"671","article-title":"Automated Detection of Breaking Wave Height Using an Optical Technique","volume":"28","author":"Shand","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Coast. Res."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1016\/j.coastaleng.2019.02.002","article-title":"A novel machine learning algorithm for tracking remotely sensed waves in the surf zone","volume":"147","author":"Stringari","year":"2019","journal-title":"Coast. Eng."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Andriolo, U. (2019). Nearshore Wave Transformation Domains from Video Imagery. J. Mar. Sci. Eng., 7.","DOI":"10.3390\/jmse7060186"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ellenson, A., Simmons, J., Wilson, G., Hesser, T., and Splinter, K. (2020). Beach State Recognition Using Argus Imagery and Convolutional Neural Networks. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12233953"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Buscombe, D., and Carini, R. (2019). A Data-Driven Approach to Classifying Wave Breaking in Infrared Imagery. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.20944\/preprints201903.0283.v1"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3604","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-83188-y","article-title":"Deep neural networks for active wave breaking classification","volume":"11","author":"Stringari","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103593","DOI":"10.1016\/j.coastaleng.2019.103593","article-title":"Optical wave gauging using deep neural networks","volume":"155","author":"Buscombe","year":"2020","journal-title":"Coast. Eng."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Fung, J. (2021, June 21). Vision-Based Near-Shore Wave Tracking and Recognition for High Elevation and Aerial Video Cameras. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/citrusvanilla\/multiplewavetracking_py."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kim, J., Kim, J., Kim, T., Huh, D., and Caires, S. (2020). Wave-Tracking in the Surf Zone Using Coastal Video Imagery with Deep Neural Networks. Atmosphere, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/atmos11030304"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.2112\/SI87-005.1","article-title":"The Influence of Sand Bar Morphology on Surfing Amenity at New Zealand Beach Breaks","volume":"87","author":"Bryan","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Coast. Res."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shand, T., Weppe, S., Quilter, P., Short, A., Blumberg, B., and Reinen-Hamill, R. (2020, January 31). Assessing the effect of Earthquake-Induced Uplift and Engineering Works on a Surf Break of National Significance. Proceedings of the ICCE, Online.","DOI":"10.9753\/icce.v36v.papers.23"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mckenzie, S., and Green, R. (2018, January 19\u201321). Gnarometer Surfcam Live Inspector. Proceedings of the International Conference on Image and Vision Computing, Auckland, New Zealand.","DOI":"10.1109\/IVCNZ.2018.8634722"},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Freeston, B. (2021, June 21). Real-Time Smart Monitoring and Prediction of Recreational Use and Environmental Data from Ocean Facing CCTV Cameras\u2014Surfzone.ai. Available online: https:\/\/www.surfzone.ai\/."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Patterson, D. (1985). Low Cost Visual Determination of Surfzone Parameters. [Master\u2019s Thesis, University of Queensland]."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"(2021, June 21). OpenCV, SimpleBlobDetector Class Reference. Available online: https:\/\/docs.opencv.org\/3.4\/d0\/d7a\/classcv_1_1SimpleBlobDetector.html."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2278","DOI":"10.1109\/5.726791","article-title":"Gradient-based learning applied to document recognition","volume":"86","author":"LeCun","year":"1998","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bewley, A., Ge, Z., Ott, L., Ramos, F., and Upcroft, B. (2016, January 25\u201328). Simple Online and Realtime Tracking. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Phoenix, AZ, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICIP.2016.7533003"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1109\/48.557542","article-title":"Practical use of video imagery in nearshore oceanographic field studies","volume":"22","author":"Holland","year":"1997","journal-title":"IEEE J. Ocean. Eng."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Collins, R. (2021, June 21). Planar Homographies. Available online: http:\/\/www.cse.psu.edu\/~rtc12\/CSE486\/lecture16.pdf."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1016\/0025-3227(84)90008-2","article-title":"Morphodynamic variability of surf zones and beaches: A synthesis","volume":"56","author":"Wright","year":"1984","journal-title":"Mar. Geol."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"(2021, June 21). City of Gold Coast, Palm Beach Shoreline Project, Available online: https:\/\/www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au\/documents\/bf\/Palm-Beach-shoreline-project-brochure-A4.pdf."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thompson, M., Watterson, E., and Baldock, T. (2020, January 7\u201310). Assessment of Surf Amenity using Computer Vision with Convolutional Neural Networks to Track Wave Pockets. Proceedings of the 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, Brisbane, Australia.","DOI":"10.14264\/767544c"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Andriolo, U., Mendes, D., and Taborda, R. (2020). Breaking Wave Height Estimation from Timex Images: Two Methods for Coastal Video Monitoring Systems. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12020204"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Coastal Engineering Research Centre (1984). Shore Protection Manual."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Simonyan, K., and Zisserman, A. (2015, January 7\u20139). Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition. Proceedings of the International Conference on Learning Representations, San Diego, CA, USA. Available online: https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1409.1556."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"(2021, June 21). Tensorflow, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Available online: https:\/\/www.tensorflow.org\/tutorials\/images\/cnn."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/13\/17\/3372\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T06:51:38Z","timestamp":1760165498000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/13\/17\/3372"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"17","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9]]}},"alternative-id":["rs13173372"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs13173372","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2072-4292"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]]}}}