Coastal Shoreline Extraction from Satellite Images

This article presents a novel approach for extracting shorelines from high-resolution satellite images. Traditionally, manual techniques have been employed for shoreline measurement, which is time-consuming. However, advancements in remote sensing technology, particularly in optical imagery, allow for the automatic extraction of accurate and detailed shorelines from high-resolution data. The conventional remote sensing methods have typically relied on pixel and object-based approaches for shoreline extraction, focusing solely on object size. In contrast, mathematical morphology techniques consider both object size and shape. This paper presents the Morphological Shoreline Index (MSI) algorithm, which is based on structural feature extraction, for extracting the shorelines. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, three distinct high-resolution satellite images of Chennai, India, captured by the LISS-III sensor with a spatial resolution of 23.5 meters, have been used.