Open AccessAdapting to Shifting Tides: Science and the Policy Implications of Coastal Change
Author(s) -
Anderson John,
Griggs Gary,
Nicholls Robert,
Uhlenbrock Kristan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1002/2013eo470004
Subject(s) - climate change , shore , oceanography , sea level rise , sediment , environmental science , sea level , climatology , geology , period (music) , subsidence , global change , physical geography , geography , geomorphology , physics , structural basin , acoustics
Acceleration of sea‐level rise (SLR) in response to global climate change is well under way. Global SLR averages about 3 millimeters per year over the past several decades, in comparison to an average rate of a fraction of a millimeter per year over the past few thousand years. The increased rate of SLR is exacerbated on a regional scale by decadal scale oscillations in sea level that are due to oceanographic processes, varying wave climate (wave height, period, and direction), coastal subsidence due to subsurface fluid extraction, and anthropogenic alterations in sediment supply to the shoreline, in particular the alteration of sediment delivery and distribution within deltas.