The Argus Beach Monitoring Station

The Argus Beach Monitoring Station was developed by researchers at the Coastal Imaging Laboratory at Oregon State University.  Argus Beach Monitoring Stations are currently deployed in programs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geologic Survey, research laboratories, and universities.  The key parts of an ABMS are one or more high resolution color video cameras pointed obliquely along a beach and a state-of-the-art SGI^™ image processing system. Using photogrammetry techniques, image rectification, and digital analyses of light intensity, we can identify coastal features and processes and map them into any coordinate system desired. We then perform time series analyses to track changes in the locations of these features and their degree of variability, and quantify important erosion processes such as wave run-up and wave energy.

ABMS camera housings

ABMS oblique timex image

NorthWest Research Associates, Inc. (NWRA) now brings the ABMS technology to the coastal zone management and engineering community through our Video Metric Systems™ line of products and services. We deploy and operate the stations and transfer the data to our operations center, where final processing, analysis, and quality control take place.  Our staff of coastal experts perform rigorous quality control (QC) on all the data products we produce. All data are tagged with QC codes identifying their validity and uncertainty.  We provide our clients basic and advanced data packages containing all the information they have requested, which can range from completely turn-key solutions to data bases they can analyze themselves.