Coastlines of the past: clues for our future
Abstract
Coastlines are constantly evolving due to the long-term effects of sea-level change and human impacts, as well as in response to high-impact, short duration hazard events such as storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes. The sediments that accumulate in coastal systems such as estuaries, dunes, and beaches archieve the enviornmental record of the past, providing us a baseline with which to predict future coastal hazard magnitude and recurrence intervals. We study this record to understand future hazard potential, as well as to aid restoration efforts. Many coastal systems around the world have been degraded in the last few hundred years by human activity- these regions are important breeding grounds for commercially viable species, natural pollution filters, and barriers against inundation. Efforts to restore coastal systems often rely on data from historical sources to reconstruct past coastal conditions-the geological record can extend the timeframe with which we think about possible restoration points. In addition, studying past coastal response to enviornmental changes can aid the effort to restore systems to a point of sustainability and resilience instead of simply restoring to an arbirtary point in time.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMPA42A..04R
- Keywords:
-
- 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATION;
- 6349 General or miscellaneous;
- POLICY SCIENCES;
- 6699 General or miscellaneous;
- PUBLIC ISSUES