Reducing risks to life and property in the coastal environment requires monitoring of conditions to enhance our understanding of hazardous coastal processes. The CoastSAFE Alive project aims to develop real time assessment tools that provide safety indices and risk profiles for Australian beaches. This will build on previous assessments of Australian beaches by incorporating shortterm changes to hazard ratings based on prevailing and forecast environmental conditions. Longterm monitoring of physical coastal processes provides the basis for the development of predictive models of our coastal environment. With a continuous data collection program in place, there is also the opportunity to provide real-time information to authorities charged with the duty of care of coastal users and management of coastal infrastructure. CoastalCOMS, Coastalwatch, Surf Lifesaving Australia, Surf Lifesaving Queensland and Griffith University are working on the development of assessment tools which integrate data collection and numerical methods to enable short-term forecasting of coastal processes which impact upon coastal users. Techniques being integrated range from video camera installations to complex artificial neural networks and shape detection algorithms.