OVERVIEW
This dataset contains backbeach characterization data for multiple globally 
distributed sea turtle nesting beaches, underlying the analysis presented 
in Chapter 4 of the dissertation "Coastal Science for Sea Turtle Conservation" 
by Jakob C. Christiaanse (2025).

For each study site, the data includes computed backbeach distance metrics,
elevation profiles, and the beachwidth line geometries. The dataset is organ-
ized to facilitate reproducible coastal change analysis and supports research 
on coastal dynamics and sea turtle habitat. Data are provided in CSV and GeoJSON 
formats, compatible with common data analysis tools.

The Chapter is currently in preparation to be submitted as a journal article.
Until it is published, please cite the dissertation when using this data (see 
references).

CONTENTS
The data is divided in one folder per study site:
- AI_LB: Long Beach, Ascension Island
- AU_DH: Dirk Hartog Island, Australia
- BR_BV: Busca Vida, Brazil
- CR_TO: Tortuguero, Costa Rica
- CV_JB: Joao Barrosa, Cabo Verde
- CY_AL: Alagadi, Cyprus
- MX_LE: La Escobilla, Mexico
- MX_RN: Rancho Nuevo, Mexico
- OM_MI: Masirah Island, Oman

DATA STRUCTURE
Each study site folder contains the following five files:

- **_**_backbeach.csv
    Estimated backbeach distance metrics [m] for each transect (rows). For the final 
    three columns (IFD, BBD, acc_space), values of 1000 signal that no limit was found
    within the first 1000 m of the shoreline, hence this is a minimum value (i.e., there
    is at least 1000 m accommodation space).
    --Columns--
        - transect: Transect id (T1, T2, T3) 
        - gcts_id: Unique ID of transct in GCTS database.
        - beach_width: Distance between reference shoreline position and backbeach.
        - IFD: Distance between reference shoreline position and first infrastructure.
        - BBD: Distance between reference shoreline position and first DeltaDTM point 
        above 10m + MSL
        - acc_space: Accommodation space computed as: min(IFD, BBD) - beach_width

- **_**_beachwidth_line.geojson
    Manually digitized vegetation/dune edge used to compute the beach width.  
    --Attributes--  
        - geometry: LineString geometry 

- **_**_T1_elevation.csv
    Backbeach elevation profile at transect T1, extracted from DeltaDTM.
    --Columns--
        - x: Distance from landward transect end [m] (horizontal coordinate).
        - z: Elevation [m + MSL] (vertical coordinate).

- **_**_T2_elevation.csv
    Same as previous but for transect T2.     

- **_**_T3_elevation.csv
    Same as previous but for transect T3.      

DATA FORMAT
Tabular data, provided in two formats:
- *.csv file (for all regular tables)
- *.geojson file (when geometry variables are included)

USAGE
Any software or programming language that can read *.geojson and/or *.csv files can 
be used to analyse the data (Python, R, C++, Julia). We have used Python for all 
processing and operations on the data. Required python packages are Pandas and
GeoPandas. The *.geojson files can then simply be read using GeoPandas.read_file(),
which will return a GeoDataFrame with the data.

REFERENCES
Christiaanse, J. C. (2025). Coastal Science for Sea Turtle Conservation [Doctoral 
dissertation, Delft University of Technology].

LICENSE
CC BY 4.0