Sea-level, sediment supply and coastal changes: Examples from the coast of Ireland

Sediment supply and pre-existing shoreline morphology are crucial factors in controlling coastal changes due to sea-level rise. Using examples from both southeast and northeast Ireland, it can be shown that sea-level change may trigger a sequence of events which leads to both static and dynamic shoreline equilibrium. Cliff erosion and longshore sediment movement in east Co. Wexford has led to injection of sediment onto the shelf, and the growth, under both wave and tide regimes, of linear offshore shoals. These shoals now control the pattern of shoreline erosion and provide a template for possible stepwise evolution of the coast under any future sea-level rise. In contrast, the nearby coast of south Co. Wexford comprises a series of coarse clastic barriers moving monotonously onshore, via overwash processes. Here the behavior of the barrier is conditioned by the antecedent morphology of both the beach face and stream outlet bedforms. Finally, the rock platform coast of Co. Antrim presents a far more resistant shoreline to incident marine processes, yet even here there is strong evidence of present process control over so-called ‘raised’ platforms and embayments. It is concluded that coastal sediment supply and dynamics, together with coastal morphology and its interaction with waves, present a far more complex variety of sea-level indicators than is normally acknowledged.     

杭州湾北岸岸滩变化对海平面上升的响应——以龙泉—南竹港岸段为例

相对海平面上升引发的海岸潜在侵蚀是海岸带资源利用与规划的重点关注内容.基于杭州湾北岸龙泉—南竹港岸段实测断面资料,利用历史岸线后退和淹没法则计算法分析了该地区的海岸变化对海平面上升的响应.结果表明:近10 a来岸滩呈侵蚀后退趋势,年侵蚀速率为3.7～5.7 m/a,相对海平面上升对岸滩迁移后退的贡献为2％～6％;未来1...     

Beach and shoreface response to sea-level rise: Ocean City, Maryland, U.S.A.

Sea-level is one of the principal determinants of shoreline position. Sea-level rise induces or accelerates on-going shore retreat since deeper water decreases wave refraction, thus increasing littoral drift, and also allowing waves to arrive closer to shore before breaking. Tidal records from the US East and Gulf coasts indicate a relative sea-level rise of approximately 0.3m has occurred during the past century. Concomitantly, erosion has been prevalent almost everywhere along these sandy shorelines. Ocean City, Maryland, was selected as a case study site to determine historical shoreline changes and to project future beach erosion based on accelerated rates of sea-level rise. During the past 130 years (1850–1980), this shore has retreated approximately 75m and many highrise buildings at Ocean City are now threatened during storm conditions. Accelerated sea-level rise is expected to increase the rate of retreat by a factor of 2 to 5 based on analysis of present trends. This significantly reduces the planning time available for mitigating the hazard and increases the vulnerability of this urbanised barrier through time.     

砂质岸线变化研究进展

简要介绍了岸线的概念。在影响岸线变化的因素中，研究人员对海平面上升、人类活动和风暴作用等影响研究相对比较多。为了加强对海岸的管理和提高岸线预测的精度，研究人员提出了多种岸线数据获取和处理的方法。对岸线变化的预测有概念模型、物理模型和数学模型等，但目前以数学模型中的一线数值模型为主。作者认为研究沙质海岸线变化要注意到各因素综合影响，应尽量提高岸线数据的精度和加强对近岸带各种现象物理机制的研究。     

Predicting shoreline evolution on a centennial scale using the example of the vistula (Baltic) spit

The proposed algorithm comprises three main steps. The first step is the evaluation of the sediment transport and budget. It was shown that the root segment of the Vistula Spit is dominated by eastward longshore sediment transport (up to 50 thousand m³/year). Over the rest of the spit, the shoreline??s orientation causes westward sediment transport (more than 100 thousand m³/year). The gradients of the longshore and cross shore sediment transport become the major contributors to the overall sediment balance. The only exception is the northeastern tip of the spit due to the appreciable imbalance of the sediment budget (13 m³m^?1 yr^?1). The second step in the prediction modeling is the estimation of the potential sea-level changes during the 21st century. The third step involves modeling of the shoreline??s behavior using the SPELT model [6, 7, 8]. In the most likely scenario, the rate of the recession is predicted to be about 0.3 m/year in 2010?C2050 and will increase to 0.4 m/year in 2050?C2100. The sand deficit, other than the sea-level rise, will be a key factor in the control of the shoreline??s evolution at the northeastern tip of the spit, and the amount of recession will range from 160 to 200 m in 2010?C2100.     

Holocene excursions of the Northwest European geoid

Computer-assisted analyses of more than 600 radiocarbon-dated sea-level indicators from northwestern Europe, concentrated around the North Sea margin, indicate that vertical crustal movements are more important that eustatic sea-level change in determining the locus of Holocene shoreline positions through time. For the past 14,000 radiocarbon years, the divergence of sea-level data for the northwest European sectors exceeds the maximum estimated sea-level rise by a factor of two or more. Projecting these data to a single meridian demonstrates the remarkable variety of vertical crustal movement in northwestern Europe.Accumulating radiocarbon-dated sea-level indicators into millennial cohorts, we generate isobase maps which begin to specify areas of notable vertical crustal mobility. These isobase maps appear to confirm that eustatic sea-level rise is subordinate to postglacial geoidal excursions in determining the locus of contemporary northwestern European shorelines.     

Accelerated relative sea-level rise and rapid coastal erosion:: testing a causal relationship for the Louisiana barrier islands

The role of relative sea-level rise as a cause for the rapid erosion of Louisiana's barrier island coast is investigated through a numerical implementation of a modified Bruun rule that accounts for the low percentage of sand-sized sediment in the eroding Louisiana shoreface. Shore-normal profiles from 150 km of coastline west of the Mississippi delta are derived from bathymetric surveys conducted during the 1880s, 1930s and 1980s. An RMS difference criterion is employed to test whether an equilibrium profile form is maintained between survey years. Only about half the studied profiles meet the equilibrium criterion; this represents a significant limitation on the potential applicability of the Bruun rule. The profiles meeting the equilibrium criterion, along with measured rates of relative sea-level rise, are used to hindcast shoreline retreat rates at 37 locations within the study area. Modeled and observed shoreline retreat rates show no significant correlation. Thus, in terms of the Bruun approach, relative sea-level rise has no power for hindcasting (and presumably forecasting) rates of coastal erosion for the Louisiana barrier islands.     

Human impacts overwhelm the effects of sea-level rise on Basque coastal habitats (N Spain) between 1954 and 2004

According to coastal measurements, global mean sea-level has risen at a rate of 1.8 mm yr⁻¹ between 1950 and 2000, with large spatial variability at regional scales. Within the Bay of Biscay, trends computed from coastal tide gauges records have revealed that sea-level rise is accelerating over this period of time; this is in agreement with rates obtained from satellite imagery in the open ocean since 1993. The objectives of the present study are: (1) to assess the evidence of the relative sea-level rise on coastal morphology and habitats in the Gipuzkoan littoral zone (Basque coast, northern Spain) for the period 1954–2004, and (2) to evaluate the relative contribution of local anthropogenic versus sea-level rise impacts for explaining inter-supratidal habitat changes. A high-resolution airborne laser altimetry data (LIDAR) has been used to derive a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of 15-cm vertical resolution. Coastal habitats were mapped for two periods, using historic airborne photography (1954) and high-resolution imagery (2004). Analysis of tide gauge records from Santander (northern Spain) has revealed that relative mean sea-level has been rising at a rate of 2.08 ± 0.33 mm yr⁻¹ from 1943 to 2004; this is consistent with sea-level trends from other measurements within the area (St. Jean de Luz and Bilbao), obtained over shorter periods of time, and with previous results obtained in the Bay of Biscay. Based upon this sea-level trend and by means of a LIDAR-based DTM, the results have indicated that the predicted change along the Gipuzkoan coast due to sea-level rise was of 11.1 ha within the 50-yr period. In contrast, comparison of historical and recent orthophotography has detected only 2.95 ha of change, originated possibly from sea-level rise, and 98 ha transformed by anthropogenic impacts. Hence, coastal changes due to sea-level rise might be overwhelmed by excessive human impacts, at the spatial and temporal scales of the analysis. This work highlights that local anthropogenic impact is the major threat to Basque coastal and estuarine habitats, compared with natural erosive processes and global climate change driving forces over recent times.     

Project NOAH: Regulating modern sea-level rise. Phase II: Jerusalem Underground

This proposal builds a high-speed inter-urban express between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, generates 1500 megawatts of hydroelectric energy, curtails littoral erosion, builds a port along the Israeli Mediterranean coast and demands peaceful cooperation on both sides of the Jordan River. Phase II represents a pilot project demonstrating the feasibility of continuing to regulate world sea-level by a new series of water regulation schemes. Phase I previously described all those projects already completed or underway which have inadvertently and/or unintentionally served the purpose of sea-level regulation. These forms of Phase I sea-level regulation include large and small reservoirs, irrigation projects, water infiltration schemes, farm ponds, and swimming and reflecting pools. All these water storage projects have already exercised a very appreciable brake on 20th century sea-level rise. Phase II outlines a high-visibility proposal which will serve to illustrate the viability of “Project NOAH”.     

Interannual variation of rare earth element abundances in corals from northern coast of the South China Sea and its relation with sea-level change and human activities

Here we present interannual rare earth element (REE) records spanning the last two decades of the 20th century in two living Porites corals, collected from Longwan Bay, close to the estuarine zones off Wanquan River of Hainan Island and Hong Kong off the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province in the northern South China Sea. The results show that both coral REE contents (0.5-40 ng g?1 in Longwan Bay and 2-250 ng g?1 in Hong Kong for La-Lu) are characterized with a declining trend, which are significantly negative correlated with regional sea-level rise (9.4 mm a?1) from 1981 to 1996 in Longwan Bay, 13.7 mm a?1 from 1991 to 2001 in Hong Kong). The REE features are proposed to be resulted from seawater intrusion into the estuaries in response to contemporary sea-level rise. However, the tendency for the coral Er/Nd time series at Hong Kong site is absent and there is no significant relation between Er/Nd and total REEs as found for the coral at Longwan Bay site. The observations are likely attributed to changes of the water discharge and sediment load of Pearl River, which have been significantly affected by intense human activities, such as the construction of dams/reservoirs and riverbed sediment mining, in past decades. The riverine sediment load/discharge ratio of the Pearl River decreased sharply with a rate of 0.02 kg m?3 a?1, which could make significant contribution to the declining trend of coral REE. We propose that coastal corals in Longwan Bay and similar unexplored sites with little influences of river discharge and anthropogenic disruption are ideal candidates to investigate the influence of sea-level change on seawater/coral REE.     

Future sea-level rise and its early detection by satellite remote sensing

During the past 100 years, sea-level appears to have risen by 10–15cm, probably due to the combined effects of thermal expansion of ocean-surface waters and net melting of glaciers and ice caps, associated with a small increase in global temperatures. This trend will almost certainly continue and accelerate if steadily increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gases in the atmosphere cause warming of the magnitude widely predicted by climate modellers. Rising air temperatures will cause increased melting from glaciers and ice caps, and rising sea-water temperatures will cause thermal expansion of the oceans. Moreover, warmer ocean waters could melt and weaken the many floating ice shelves that surround Antarctica, permitting increased ice discharge from glaciers that flow into them. All of these factors would cause sea-level to rise, and this paper presents and estimate of the total sea-level rise that could occur during the next century.If, as predicted by many climate models, global temperatures increase by an average of about 3°C, there is a good probability that sea-level will rise approximately 1m by the year 2100. Ultimately, such a rise would become very apparent to coastal populations, but initial change would be slow. Consequently, it is important to devise and “early warning system” for prompt detection of changes that will precede a detectable rise in sea level. These include: surface temperatures on land, oceans and ice sheets; sea-ice distribution; extent of summer melting on the polar ice sheets; areal extent and surface elevations of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. All of these parameters can be measured from space by satellites that are operating now or are planned for launch during the next few years     

How much data is enough? The importance of morphological sampling interval and duration for calibration of empirical shoreline models

The ability to robustly predict future shoreline position under the influence of changing waves and sea-level rise is a key challenge to scientists and engineers alike. While extrapolating a linear trend out in time is a common baseline approach, the recent development of a number of empirical shoreline models allows the prediction of storm and annual-scale variability as well. The largest constraint in applying these models is the availability of high quality, adequate duration data sets in order to calibrate model free parameters. This contribution outlines several such models and discusses the monitoring programs required to calibrate and hindcast shoreline change from 1 to 10 years at two distinct beach types: a storm-dominated site and the second exhibiting a large seasonal variability. The seasonally-dominated site required longer data sets but was less sensitive to sampling interval, while the storm-dominated site converged on shorter, more frequently sampled data sets. In general, calibration based on a single year of observed shorelines resulted in a large range of model skill and was not considered robust. Monitoring programs of at least two years, with shorelines sampled at dt ≤ 30 days were sufficient to determine initial estimates of calibration coefficients and hindcast short-term (1–5 years) shoreline variability. In the presence of unresolved model processes and noise, hindcasting longer (5 + years) data sets required longer (5 + years) calibration data sets, particularly when sampling intervals exceeded 60 days.     

美国岸线现状调查30年进展综述——以美国弗吉尼亚州为例

以美国弗吉尼亚州20世纪70年代和21世纪初两个年代进行的岸线现状调查工作为例,介绍了30年来美国岸线现状调查的目标、指导原则、调查内容、数据来源、报告编写等内容,并与我国20世纪80年代开展的"全国海岸带和海涂资源综合调查"工作以及当前正在开展的"我国近海海洋综合调查与评价"专项的海岸带调查进行了对比,讨论了两国在海岸带调查方面的异同,以及可供借鉴之处。     

Depo sequence as tool to convert shoreline trajectory from space domain to time domain

Deposystems are complex and governed by discrete depo events with variable intervals of stasis or erosion in between. Since shoreface sediments indicate sea level, depo events of shoreline facies are discrete samples of sea level. Only if these samples are sufficiently regular and frequent will the shoreline trajectory in the space domain accurately reflect the sea-level curve in the time domain. This study presents a method to convert shoreline trajectory in the space domain to sea-level curve in the time domain from artificial miniature deltas. One obtains the depo sequence as function of time and uses it to: convert depo sequence from time-to space domain, correlate depo sequence to shoreline trajectory in the space domain, and convert shoreline trajectory from space-to time domain. For natural deltas one would extract the depo set in the frequency domain, i.e. the probability density function of stasis intervals between depo events from the experimental depo sequence and use it to: convert shoreline trajectory from space-to time domain, and infer a range of possible sea-level curves. This method therewith explicitly includes the uncertainty of the inferred sea-level curve.     

An inflection in the rate of early mid-Holocene eustatic sea-level rise: A new sea-level curve from Singapore

This study presents a sea-level curve from 9500 to 6500 cal BP for the farfield location of Singapore, on the Sunda Shelf in southeast Asia. The curve is based on more than 50 radiocarbon dates from elevations of +1.43 m to −15.09 m representing sea-level index points in intertidal mangrove and shallow marine sediments deposited by sea-level rise accompanying deglaciation. The results indicate that mean sea level rose rapidly from around −17 m at 9500 cal BP to around −3 m by 8000 cal BP. After this time, the data suggest (but do not unequivocally prove) that the rate of sea-rise slowed for a period of 300–500 years centred on 7700 cal BP, shortly after the cessation of meltwater input to the oceans from the northern hemisphere. Renewed sea-level rise amounting to 3–5 m began around 7400 cal BP and was complete by 7000 cal BP. The existence of an inflection in the rate of sea-level rise, with a slow-down centred on 7700 cal BP, is broadly consistent with other available sea-level curves over this interval and is supported by evidence of stable shorelines and delta initiation elsewhere at this time, as well as evidence of comparatively rapid retreat of the West Antarctic ice sheet beginning around 7500 cal BP. ‘Stepped’ sea-level rise occurring shortly after 7500 cal BP and also earlier during deglaciation may have served to focus significant post-glacial episodes of human maritime/coastal dispersal, into comparatively narrow time intervals.     

Sea-level rise research and dialogue in North Carolina: Creating windows for policy change

Coastal areas are among the world's most vulnerable landscapes to impacts related to climate change, including inundation from sea-level rise (SLR), increased exposure to shoreline erosion, and greater frequency and intensity of storms. The status of research on the physical, ecological, and socio-economic effects of vulnerability to SLR and progress toward planning for its consequences varies from region to region worldwide. Here, we synthesize the results of three decades of SLR research and the development of coastal management policies in North Carolina, USA. We identify the major factors responsible for opening new policy ‘windows’ that address SLR, including how stakeholders have developed an increased understanding of the risks, the extent of public dialogue about potential response strategies, and advances in political receptivity to policy change. Research and policy progress in North Carolina continue to provide a model for other regions to help guide and evaluate the development of coastal policies.     

Storms and shoreline retreat in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence

Storms play a major role in shoreline recession on transgressive coasts. In the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL), southeastern Canada, long-term relative sea-level rise off the North Shore of Prince Edward Island has averaged 0.3 m/century over the past 6000 years (>0.2 m/century over 2000 years). This has driven long-term coastal retreat at mean rates >0.5 m/a but the variance and details of coastal profile response remain poorly understood. Despite extensive sandy shores, sediment supply is limited and sand is transferred landward into multidecadal to century-scale storage in coastal dunes, barrier washover deposits, and flood-tidal delta sinks. Charlottetown tide-gauge records show mean relative sea-level rise of 3.2 mm/a (0.32 m/century) since 1911. A further rise of 0.7±0.4 m is projected over the next 100 years. When differenced from tidal predictions, the water-level data provide a 90-year record of storm-surge occurrence. Combined with wind, wave hindcast, and sea-ice data, this provides a catalogue of potentially significant coastal storms. We also document coastal impacts from three recent storms of great severity in January and October 2000 and November 2001. Digital photogrammetry (1935–1990) and shore-zone surveys (1989–2001) show large spatial and temporal variance in coastal recession rates, weakly correlated with the storm record, in part because of wave suppression or coastal protection by sea ice. Large storms cause rapid erosion from which recovery depends in part on local sand supply, but barrier volume may be conserved by washover deposition. Barrier shores with dunes show high longshore and interdecadal variance, with extensive multidecadal healing of former inlet and overwash gaps. This reflects recovery from an episode of widespread overwash prior to 1935, possibly initiated by intense storms or groups of storms in the latter half of the 19th century. With evidence from the storms of 2000–2001, this points to the importance of storm clustering on scales of weeks to years in determining erosion vulnerability, as well as the need for a long-term, large-scale perspective in assessing coastal stability. The expected acceleration in relative sea-level rise, together with projections of increasing storm intensity and greatly diminished winter ice cover in the southern GSL, implies a significant increase in coastal erosion hazards in future.     

南科1井第四系暴露面特征及其与海平面变化的关系*

珊瑚礁地层中的暴露面是海平面变化的忠实记录, 对地层层序的划分和研究珊瑚礁体的生长发育过程具有重要意义。本文基于手标本观察与薄片鉴定、碳氧同位素和矿物组成分析, 识别了南沙美济岛南科1井第四纪生物礁碳酸盐岩地层中的典型暴露面, 剖析了主要暴露面与海平面变化及珊瑚礁发育演化的关系。在南科1井(NK-1)第四纪地层中典型暴露面附近以出现大量溶蚀孔穴和红褐色或锈黄色钙质结核为特征, 其碳氧同位素偏负, 并富集Al、Th、Fe和稀土元素, 具有典型碳酸盐岩风化壳的特征。南科1井全新世礁体发育在晚更新世暴露面之上, AMS¹⁴C和U-Th年龄数据证实美济岛全新世珊瑚礁生长时段与南海其他珊瑚岛礁一致, 主要发育在8.2~4.7ka时期, 该时段海平面的缓慢上升为珊瑚礁连续垂向生长提供了有利环境。Sr同位素和古地磁年龄标定的南科1井更新世地层中的主要暴露面时代与南沙永暑礁和西沙群岛珊瑚礁地层中的暴露面时代基本一致, 主要暴露面对应于全球第四纪低海平面时期。     

Holocene sedimentation of a wave-dominated barrierisland shoreline: Cape Lookout, North Carolina

The sedimentary record of 130 km of microtidal (0.9 m tidal range) high wave energy (1.5 m average wave height) barrier island shoreline of the Cape Lookout cuspate foreland has been evaluated through examination of 3136 m of subsurface samples from closely spaced drill holes. Holocene sedimentation and coastal evolution has been a function of five major depositional processes: (1) eustatic sea-level rise and barrier-shoreline transgression; (2) lateral tidal inlet migration and reworking of barrier island deposits; (3) shoreface sedimentation and local barrier progradation; (4) storm washover deposition with infilling of shallow lagoons; and (5) flood-tidal delta sedimentation in back-barrier environments.

Twenty-five radiocarbon dates of subsurface peat and shell material from the Cape Lookout area are the basis for a late Holocene sea-level curve. From 9000 to 4000 B.P. eustatic sea level rose rapidly, resulting in landward migration of both barrier limbs of the cuspate foreland. A decline in the rate of sea-level rise since 4000 B.P. resulted in relative shoreline stabilization and deposition of contrasting coastal sedimentary sequences. The higher energy, storm-dominated northeast barrier limb (Core and Portsmouth Banks) has migrated landward producing a transgressive sequence of coarse-grained, horizontally bedded washover sands overlying burrowed to laminated back-barrier and lagoonal silty sands. Locally, ephemeral tidal inlets have reworked the transgressive barrier sequence depositing fining-upward spit platform and channel-fill sequences of cross-bedded, pebble gravel to fine sand and shell. Shoreface sedimentation along a portion of the lower energy, northwest barrier limb (Bogue Banks) has resulted in shoreline progradation and deposition of a coarsening-up sequence of burrowed to cross-bedded and laminated, fine-grained shoreface and foreshore sands. In contrast, the adjacent barrier island (Shackleford Banks) consists almost totally of inlet-fill sediments deposited by lateral tidal inlet migration. Holocene sediments in the shallow lagoons behind the barriers are 5–8 m thick fining-up sequences of interbedded burrowed, rooted and laminated flood-tidal delta, salt marsh, and washover sands, silts and clays.

While barrier island sequences are generally 10 m in thickness, inlet-fill sequences may be as much as 25 m thick and comprise an average of 35% of the Holocene sedimentary deposits. Tidal inlet-fill, back-barrier (including flood-tidal delta) and shoreface deposits are the most highly preservable facies in the wave-dominated barrier-shoreline setting. In the Cape Lookout cuspate foreland, these three facies account for over 80% of the sedimentary deposits preserved beneath the barriers. Foreshore, spit platform and overwash facies account for the remaining 20%.     

The past, present and future evolution of Hurst Castle spit, Hampshire

Previous models of the evolution of Hurst Castle Spit over-emphasised longshore growth at the expense of other processes, particularly rise in sea-level. Initially, a Pleistocene valley system was submerged creating a tidal strait, the West Solent, between Christchurch Bay and the East Solent. This almost certainly caused a major hydrodynamic change, transforming much of Christchurch Bay and the West Solent from a low to a high tidal energy environment. Hurst Castle Spit and the Shingles Bank then began to form due to a combination of an easterly littoral drift, offshore gravel movement due to the high tidal energy, a rising sea-level, the transgression of Hurst Beach due to overwashing and the formation of recurves due to waves in the West Solent. The growth of the Shingles Bank due to offshore sediment movement from Hurst Castle Spit was of particular importance because of its influence on the wave energy along Hurst Beach. Significant local supplies of shingle in the vicinity of Hurst Castle Spit, reworked from Quatenary deposits, were also of importance. Thus, it is not a classic multi-recurved spit and the transgressive segment, Hurst Beach, has much in common with barrier coastlines.The same processes are continuing to shape Hurst Castle Spit at present, with the additional effects of human interference in the coastal sediment system. The construction of sea defences at Milford-on-Sea in the period 1936 to 1968 has modified the sediment budget and Hurst Castle Spit is experiencing a phase of rapid evolution: maximum recession rates have increased from 1.5m a⁻¹ (1867–1968) to 3.5m a⁻¹ (1968–1982). It is difficult to quantify the exact role of sea-level rise in the present evolution of Hurst Castle Spit.The future evolution of Hurst Castle Spit will depend largely on man. If there is no further interference, which is highly unlikely, the beach volume will continue to decline, resulting in a further increase in the rate of recession. Ultimately, a true tidal breach will probably form, marking a new phase in the evolution of Hurst Castle Spit and its environs. However, shingle renourishment, or another coastal engineering solution will probably be undertaken. The future rate of sea-level rise will have important long-term influences on all these options.