Coastal impacts such as indundation and erosion can increase the vulnerability of coastal communities in the Pacific islands, particularly those residing on low lying atolls. Impacts can be caused by a variety of different factors both natural and man-made. Understanding the cause of change in coastlines can help us to manage these important environments more effectively and reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities.

Analysing modern day satellite imagery alongside historical aerial photos taken during the last 50-60 years can provide unique insights into the ways in which shorelines and coastal environments have evolved, both naturally and through human interactions. Overlaying imagery from different time periods is a technique often used by coastal scientists and managers to understand shoreline dynamics and the causes of coastal change.

In the last 5 years SOPAC has gathered and made use of historical aerial photographs for a number of islands in the region in order to understand the causes of change in shoreline position and stability. Sourcing suitable photographs is not straightforward, as the majority are kept in archives outside of the Pacific islands region. PI-GOOS has therefore embarked on an initiative to develop a catalogue of historical aerial photographic of Pacific island coastlines.

The pictures at right shows an aerial photo from 1941 of Fongafale islet, the main population centre in Tuvalu, overlaid on top of a satellite image from 2003.

US National Archives and Records Administration

The catalogue was compiled in 2008 through an initiative to comprehensively assess NARA's air photo collection, thought to be one of the most sizable in the world as it contains air photos collected during the WWII military campaign in the Pacific. At present the catalogue covers the north Pacific islands only. Records for islands south of the Equator will be added to the catalogue in 2009. All photos referred to in the catalogue are held at NARA facilities.

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Additional notes (PDF, 15KB)

University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hamilton Library

The catalogue lists ~2000 air photos supplied to the UH Hamilton Library by the US Geoological Survey. Approximately half of the collection comprises of air photos for Hawaii. The remainder covers the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. All photos referred to in the catalogue are held at UH Hamilton library.

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Additional notes (PDF, 14KB)

New Zealand Aerial Mapping

The catalogue lists air photos collected by NZAM in the Pacific Islands during the last 60 years. Some of the photos are held at NZAM offices in New Zealand, while others are held by the national mapping departments in the countries where the photos were collected. Efforts are underway to locate these photos and convert them to digital format where needed.