Sea level change - summary

Sea level change, relative to the land is a product of the relationship between change in the level of the land (isostacy) and sea (eustacy). In areas where isostatic rebound of glaciated areas is greater than the present rise in sea level, a general elevation of the land relative to the sea occurs such as in along the coast of Norway, in the Gulf of Bothnia and the coasts of Scotland and northern England. These areas of falling sea levels can result in an extension of the shoreline as new habitat accretes to seaward.

Where the land is sinking, rising sea levels are enhanced and force a landward migration of the shoreline. This is the situation for much of the southern North Sea basin and is partly responsible for the development of the 'Living with the Seas' project. These effects are of course modified by the availability of sediment which, when particularly abundant, can force a seaward movement even if sea level is rising. However, of the two situations the latter more frequently results in the need to consider shoreline management policy to combat the increased threat from erosion and flooding. A feature of some areas is the loss of saltmarsh and with it the 'protection' given to sea walls.

Comment: The issue of sea level change has been the subject of a large number and variety of studies and publications. Foremost amongst these are the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change http://www.ipcc.ch/.

European Research: The whole issue of sea level change as it effects deltas in the Mediterranean was the subject of a MEDDELT project supported by the EC ENVIRONMENT Research Programme, Directorate General for Science, Research and Development under Contract No. EV5V-CT94-0465 co-ordianted by the Laboratori d'Enginyeria Marìtima (LIM/UPC), Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain - http://lim-ciirc.upc.es/eng/r+d/pro/meddelt/index.htm.