Skip to main content

Bournemouth University

BU Research Blog

Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University

  • Home
  • RDS Team
    • Faculty-Facing Staff
    • Funding Development Team
    • Project Delivery and Research Governance Teams
    • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team
    • Research Excellence Team
  • Clinical Governance @ BU
  • Research Ethics @ BU
  • Post-REF 2021
    • BU REF 2021 Code of Practice
    • Declaration of Staff Circumstances
    • BU’s Unit of Assessment Teams
    • REF FAQs
    • Archive – REF 2014
      • BU REF 2014 Code of Practice
      • REF 2014 Frequently Asked Questions
        • REF 2014 Overview
        • Staff eligibility
        • Mock REF 2014 (REF preparation) exercises at BU
        • REF 2014 Assessment of outputs
        • REF 2014 Staff selection
        • REF 2014 Equality and diversity
  • Impact
    • Partnerships & collaborations
    • Working with businesses
      • Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)
    • Communicating your research
    • Influencing policy makers
    • Public engagement
      • Quick guide to public engagement
    • Student engagement
      • Stages of engagement
      • Case study: Sean Beer
      • Case study: James Gavin
      • Case study: Anna Feigenbaum
  • Research Toolkit
  • Research Lifecycle
  • Policy
  • PGR
    • The Doctoral College Team

May 26, 2021

BU leads 5G Rural Dorset extension on coastal cliff monitoring

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion themes, innovation mangelopoulos

Earlier in May, 5G Rural Dorset announced a new project expansion to monitor land stability and cliff movement at key points along the Jurassic Coast.

The extension to this DCMS-backed project takes its funding to £8 million and sees the British Geological Survey (BGS) join the project to work on this research area.

Coastal landslides and cliff failures represent a significant hazard to local residents, workers and the 12 million people who visit Dorset’s coast each year. Cliff falls are a hazard worthy of research and development trials, as they can be expensive and time consuming to monitor using traditional methods.

This highly interdisciplinary work brings together key 5G industry players Vodafone and Neutral Networks, experts in computer science from Bournemouth University and geological expertise from the British Geological Survey and Dorset Council.

It is hoped that the research can prove that by using 5G connected sensors, the process of data collection can be made safer, more cost effective, responsive, and efficient and contribute to coastal resilience in the face of climate change and sea level rise.

The sensors will collect data such as ground movement, temperature and rainfall, which will then be processed using Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning. The system will be trialled at Lyme Regis and Burton Bradstock; coastal sites with active landslides posing public safety risks for the local community and especially visitors using the beach. The current management and monitoring systems at Lyme Regis represent a significant cost to Dorset Council.

This work complements the studies already being trialled by the project into coastal public safety and agritech which also use connected sensors and Edge computing for processing.

It also demonstrates how 5G connectivity can benefit rural communities in a wide variety of use cases including coastal safety and for local councils in reducing costs for managing the natural environment.

Dr. Marios Angelopoulos, Principal Academic at Bournemouth University, commented: “We are excited to work on this collaborative and multidisciplinary project as it gives us the opportunity to apply our 5G and IoT research to the benefit of our region with clear social and economic impact. Also, this is a fine example of how universities synergise with Industry to develop and trial new technologies in innovative use cases, thus helping to further expand the UK’s world-leading R&D infrastructure. 5G networks are usually perceived to refer only to urban environments. With this work, we will demonstrate the great added value that 5G networks can bring in a variety of use cases also to rural areas.”

Dorset Council Deputy Leader Peter Wharf said: “Cliff failures present a very dangerous problem not only in Dorset but other coastal regions which see huge numbers of visitors every year. This research, along with the coastal public safety trials, is critical to people’s safety and the long-term prosperity of the area. Current monitoring methodologies are also very costly for the council and this new technology will hopefully provide significant savings in future.”

Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman said: “5G is about more than just having a faster mobile phone and this project in Dorset is one of the innovative trials the government is funding to find new ways it can improve people’s lives. I look forward to seeing how it can boost public safety in our coastal communities and position the UK as a true world leader in 5G.”

Original announcement was edited by James Pryce and can be found here.

Tags: 5G DCMS internet of things research

Related Posts

  • 5G Rural Dorset: what would health look like with 5G?July 30, 2019
  • Launch of the National Coastal Tourism AcademyAugust 15, 2012
  • Using flow cytometry to monitor harmful algae in coastal waters: establishing a regional testing arena in Poole Harbour with national benefitsNovember 4, 2016
  • The new Dorset APP: Dorset Alliance to Prevent falls and Promote independenceMay 14, 2013

BU staff can login below:

Other services

Research Digest

Subscriptions to the BU Research Digest email are currently unavailable.

We hope to have them back online soon. In the meantime, you can sign up or unsubscribe by emailing research@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Recent posts

BU research Funding opportunities EU
  • BU professors lead research workshop at Kathmandu University, NepalFebruary 7, 2023
  • New Book from BU Researcher: The Popular Emergence of Digital FictionFebruary 6, 2023
  • Gain national recognition for your doctoral supervision: Join us online today!February 6, 2023
  • Shaping the metaverse into reality: multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges, and future research. February 6, 2023
  • NIHR Grant Applications Seminar ONLINE – 22nd March 2023February 6, 2023
  • 50th PhD viva as externalFebruary 5, 2023
  • Funding Development Briefing 08/02/23 Spotlight on: BA/Leverhulme Small Research GrantsFebruary 6, 2023
  • Research Professional – all you need to know.February 1, 2023
  • Funding Development Briefing 01/02/23 Spotlight on: KTPs – with Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Managers_re-scheduled!January 27, 2023
  • British Academy Small Grants WorkshopJanuary 25, 2023
  • Funding Development Briefing 25/1/23 Spotlight on: Horizon Europe GuaranteeJanuary 18, 2023
  • Funding Development Briefing 18/1/23 Spotlight on: Medical Research CouncilJanuary 16, 2023
  • Horizon Europe Update – January 2023January 16, 2023
  • Horizon Europe ResourcesJanuary 5, 2023
  • Research reflections 2022 – Your highlights: The SPEED projectDecember 22, 2022
  • Horizon Europe Update – End of 2022December 21, 2022
  • Horizon Europe Update – December 2022December 7, 2022
  • Funding Development Briefing 30/11/22 Spotlight on: Horizon Europe Societal ChallengesNovember 23, 2022

Search by Category

Search by popular post topics

AHRC Brexit BRIAN BU research clinical research CMMPH collaboration collaborative research conference congratulations Dr. Pramod Regmi Edwin-blog-post ESRC EU Europe event Events funding funding opportunities Fusion Fusion Investment Fund Health horizon 2020 HSC impact innovation knowledge exchange media midwifery Nepal nhs NIHR open access Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen publication public engagement publishing ref research Research Councils research professional RKE development framework social sciences training widening participation

RSS Research Information Network

  • Physical Sciences Case studies: information use and discovery
  • Information handling in collaborative research: an exploration of five case studies
  • Information literacy monitoring and evaluation
  • Data centres: their use, value and impact
  • Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications

RSS UKRI

Browse all our categories
  • Awarded & submitted bids
  • BRIAN
  • BU Challenges
  • BU research
  • BU2025
  • Business Engagement
  • Centre for Excellence in Learning
  • Clinical Governance
  • Coffee Morning
  • conferences
  • COVID-19
  • data management
  • Delicious links
  • Doctoral College
  • ECR Network
  • EPSRC
  • ESRC
  • EU
  • Events
  • Featured
  • Featured academics
  • Festival of Learning
  • Friday profile
  • Funding opportunities
  • Fusion
  • Fusion Investment Fund
  • Fusion themes
  • Global engagement
  • Grants Academy
  • Guidance
  • hate crime
  • HE-BCI
  • HEIF
  • HSS Our 9 Research Entities
  • humanities
  • Impact
  • Industry collaboration
  • Info Days
  • innovation
  • international
  • Knowledge Exchange
  • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team
  • Knowledge Transfer
  • Knowledge Transfer Partnership
  • News from the PVC
  • NHS
  • nhs
  • open accecss
  • open access
  • parliament
  • Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
  • PG research
  • policy
  • Post-award
  • Postgraduate Research
  • pre-award
  • Public engagement
  • Publishing
  • R & KE Operations
  • REF Subjects
  • Research assessment
  • Research Centres
  • Research communication
  • Research Concordat
  • Research Ethics
  • Research Integritiy
  • research integrity
  • research methods
  • Research news
  • research opportunities
  • research staff
  • Research Supervision
  • Research themes
  • Research Training
  • RKE development framework
  • staff profile pages
  • Strategic Investment Areas
  • Student Engagement
  • student research
  • the conversation
  • Training
  • UKRI
  • Uncategorized
  • Vitae
  • Women's Academic Network
  • writing
  • Twitter

© Bournemouth University 2023. All rights reserved.

  • Charitable status
  • Website privacy & cookies
  • Copyright and terms of use