Via applying the corporate aircraft and the special equipment of aerial photographing – carried out flights above the Gulf of Riga and the Baltic Sea coastal area on the territory of Latvia to establish volume of coastal zone erosion and development of construction within the dunes protection belt of 300 metres. The project was funded by Latvian Environment Protection Fund for purposes of local governments on the coastal zone, environment protection experts, for educational and scientific research purposes.METRUM obtained Latvian coastal zone aerial photographs over 500 kilometres lengthwise and 500–1000 metres breadthwise, the area between the borders of Lithuania and Estonia. Aerial photographs were further processed into coastal zone ortophotographic map at the scale 1:2000 with spatial resolution of 20 cm in situ. In terms of scale and quality, these are the most accurate cartographical data ever obtained on coastal zone of Latvia. Earlier ortophotographic maps were produced at the scale 1:10000.Comparing the ortophotographic materials of METRUM Ltd. and ortophotographic data of Latvian Geospatial Information Agency dating back to 2003–2005, it was found that over the period of three years nearly 65% of total length of the Baltic Sea coastline has been affected by erosion on different stages on the Latvian territory.
