T2.45 - fact sheet http://tyndall.e-collaboration.co.uk/publications/fact_sheets/untitled/t2_...

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The influence of climate change on the erosion of beaches and

cliffs
Sea level rise, more extreme weather, higher rainfall and greater wave energy will accelerate erosion of beaches and
coastal cliffs. The coast of east and southeast Britain is particularly vulnerable due to its open ocean setting and soft cliffs.
The nature and speed of these changes, and consequent management responses to these, will have major implications for
society, habitats, industry and infrastructure and thus need to be understood. In particular, more needs to be known about
which parts of the coast are most vulnerable to coastal erosion, where sediment liberated by erosion is transported, and
how long it remains on the foreshore.

Dr John Rees, from the British Geological Survey, and colleagues will model shoreline changes and sediment sources and
sinks to provide new information about the mobility of sediment on East Anglian beaches. They will simulate sediment
transport to predict annual drift rates under a range of climatic, sea-level and management scenarios, and develop a
profile evolution model to predict changes in foreshore shape. The focus is on a stretch of coastline between Weybourne
and Happisburgh in East Anglia characterised by mixed sediment and soft rocks, so the results and generic modelling
techniques will be able to be applied to any soft-cliff coastline. The researchers will predict shoreline evolution using
scenarios of future climate change and storylines of socio-economic trends. They will also explore novel ways of
communicating the results, making use of computer visualisations.

The results will allow specific coastal changes and their implications and costs to be explored with scientists and
decision-makers such as those at DEFRA and the Environment Agency. Better models of coastal profile evolution and
sediment transportation will lead to a more accurate evaluation of different coastal management strategies. The models
will also contribute important descriptions of coastal changes to the Tyndall Centre's Regional Coastal Simulator.

Contrasting beach sediment over a very short distance of coast either side of a landslide at Sidestrand, North Norfolk,
looking north-west (top) and southeast. A new Tyndall project is simulating the effect of sea level rise, changing wave
patterns and increases in rainfall on East Anglian coastal cliffs and beaches to develop sustainable solutions to climate
change.

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T2.45 - fact sheet http://tyndall.e-collaboration.co.uk/publications/fact_sheets/untitled/t2_...

Credit: © NERC 2002

More information

Contact the lead investigator of Project T2.45 (An integrated coastal-sediment dynamics and shoreline response
simulator):
Dr John Rees
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
Phone: +44 (0) 115 936 3296; Fax: +44 (0) 115 936 3460
Email: jgre@bgs.ac.uk

Other researchers involved in this project are:

Mr Bernard Humphreys and Dr Steve Pearson, British Geological Survey
Dr Jim Hall and Dr Mike Walkden, Department of Civil Engineering, Bristol University
Dr Robert Nicholls, Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University
Dr Simon Shackley, Manchester School of Management, UMIST
Dr Tom Spencer, Cambridge Coastal Research Unit, Cambridge University
Dr Chris Vincent, Dr Larissa Naylor, Dr Tim O'Riordan and Dr Andrew Jordan, School of Environmental Sciences, University
of East Anglia

Project duration:
September 2002 to May 2004

Useful web sites:

The Tyndall Centre: www.tyndall.ac.uk
British Geological Survey: www.bgs.ac.uk
Bristol University's cliffSCAPE model: www.cen.bris.ac.uk/civil/staff/jwh/Cliffs/index.html
Middlesex University's Flood Hazard Research Centre: www.fhrc.mdx.ac.uk/contents.html

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