Nick Mulcahy
Coastal Risk and Research Manager, Surf Life Saving New South Wales
On average, 42 people tragically drown on the New South Wales coastline every year. To reduce this toll, we need to know where and when the risk is highest and ensure safety interventions are targeted accordingly. One of the biggest gaps in current knowledge is the number of people using unpatrolled beaches. As such, Surf Live Saving New South Wales uses high-resolution aerial imagery captured by Nearmap to quantify the patterns and distribution of beach and water users in New South Wales, as part of the project Coastal insights: Safer Coasts for the Future. This enables the team to quantitively assess the risk of drowning and injury along the coast, providing insights and recommendations to improve safety.
