North Yorkshire Council has approved a funding application for a drone monitoring project to support its coastal erosion management work.

The council had requested that an Expression of Interest for £75,000 funding was submitted to the Environment Agency’s Coastal Adaptation Programme, with the recommendation going before the local authority’s Environment Directorate in a meeting last Thursday.

According to the meeting report, the funding would enable the council to deliver Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) enabled drone monitoring to assist its coastal adaptation efforts.

The LiDAR-enabled surveys would take place on the North Yorkshire coastline at ‘priority complex cliff adaptation sites’, allowing for ‘more frequent, detailed and timely data capture’, while also serving as a lower carbon approach to coastal monitoring compared to the use of regular airborne LiDAR flights.

‘This approach will significantly enhance understanding of erosion and instability trends, improve risk-based decision making, and support earlier and more effective engagement with communities living with long term coastal change’, the report reads.

The funding would enable the council to invest in drone equipment and software, staff training and certification, data processing and analysis, and project management.

The report also states that without the Expression of Interest being submitted, the council would ‘remain reliant on infrequent regional airborne LiDAR data’.

It explains that this would result in delays to the provision of up-to-date risk information, as well as interfering with efficient adaptation planning and hindering the council’s ‘meaningful engagement with communities in coastal adaptation areas’.