Abstract
Global climate variabilities have the potential to impact many coastlines around the world, and can have detrimental effects on the stability of coastlines and their function as natural coastal defenses. This paper investigates the impacts of future extreme storms and sea level rise on morphodynamics of the macro-tidal Sefton Coast, UK, taking a process-based model as a tool to simulate a snap-shot of future beach change during storms. Sefton Coast represents one of the largest dune systems in the UK, where frontal dunes function as a natural barrier against extreme conditions. Future storm conditions were determined from global predictions of future waves at the end of the twenty first century. Future sea levels were determined based on climate change allowances set by the UK Environment Agency (EA), while future surge conditions were determined based on the guidelines also provided by EA.A nested numerical modelling approach, that combined a regional scale model with a local scale model with high resolution, is used. The modelling suite was first validated against measured waves, water levels and beach change, before using it to simulate morphodynamic change from numerous statistically significant ‘future’ storm conditions. Future storm-induced morphodynamic change of the Sefton coast was then compared with that from the present storms. The results reveal that this beach will experience significant climate change driven impacts where dune retreat during storms will be considerably higher in future. The results also reveal that due to the shape of the beach and its orientation to predominant wave approach direction, there will be a strong longshore variability of morphodynamic response to storms. It was also found that the water level in front of the dune (and hence surge and future sea level rise) is the most critical factor that determines beach erosion during a storm.
Highlights
There is increasing concern among coastal planners, managers and coastal communities about the likely effects of climate change on beach stability and coastal flooding
There is a pattern of flattening of the beach face closer to the south lateral boundary of domain C near Hightown, which becomes more severe with the increase in water level, not as large as the erosion to the north of Formby Point
It can be seen that 20_100_1 storm overwashes the dune crest significantly, while there is an increase in erosion near the 5 m contour with the more severe water level, the accretion lower down the beach profile spreads over a larger area
Summary
There is increasing concern among coastal planners, managers and coastal communities about the likely effects of climate change on beach stability and coastal flooding Recent extreme events such as the winter storms of 2013/14 in the UK have raised the profile of how susceptible coastal systems can be to coastal flooding and erosion. Future projection of sea level rise shows regional differences in the spatial range of O(500 km) and strongly depends on the ocean circulation system (Church et al, 2013). The current expected future changes in global mean wave heights and wave directions ranges in ± 10% and ± 30 deg., respectively Such wave climate changes, together with sea level rise, are expected to have significant impacts on beach morphology. The geomorphology of coastlines is critical in beach response to future variabilities of these hydrodynamic forcing
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