Title: Recent coastal evolution of the Caspian sea as a natural model for coastal responses to the possible acceleration of global sea-level rise
Abstract: The Caspian Sea serves as an excellent natural laboratory for studies of coastal response patterns, as it is highly variable in its water level over decadal and secular time scales. Coastal morphology, presumably nearshore bottom slope and profiles of depositional coastal bodies or erosional scarps, as well as rates and amplitudes of water-level changes, appear to be the most important factors of coastal response rates and patterns. Nearshore bottom slope determines not only shoreline retreat values, according to the Bruun Rule, but also the very patterns of coastal evolution for various morphological types of depositional coasts including deltaic coasts. Strict analytical prediction of coastal response to the accelerated sea-level rise is yet to be solved. Analysis of every response pattern of depositional coasts to sea-level changes requires a specific modification of the Bruun Rule. However, these equations should be regarded only as the means to estimate an order of magnitude of shoreline retreat or advance. In many cases, equations based on the Bruun Rule cannot be applied at all. Boundary conditions for each quantitative model should be thoroughly studied. Where possible, longshore sediment drift, sediment washover on to the landward slope of depositional coastal features, and possible onshore or offshore aeolian sediment movement should be taken into account. Moreover, applicability of the Bruun-Rule based equilibrium approach will possibly diminish under the possible future acceleration of sea-level rise.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 72
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