Coasts eq4 Flashcards
What is a climate refugee?
Climate refugees are people who must leave their homes and communities because of the effects of climate change and global warming
The impact in Louisiana
- loses about 65 square kilometers to the sea every year
- fisheries around the delta at risk as wetlands are submerged.
- wetland ecosystem will be lost to more saltwater habitat
- fishermen will have to go further from shore to pursue fish
Maldives
average height of 1.5 m above sea level, but the population of 400,000 is too large to be easily accommodated elsewhere. Its government is negotiating with India, Sri Lanka and Australia to buy land.
What is the average ground level elevation of the Maldives?
1.5 above sea level
What are the main industries in the Maldives and how will climate change impact them?
Fishing and tourism- these industries could disappear.
What is the government of the Maldives hoping to do to support their citizens with sea level rise?
Looking to buy land in other countries such as Australia, India and Sri Lanka
What is the name of the scheme which allows 75 Tuvalu and Kiribati to move to New Zealand?
Pacific Access Category Ballot
How many Tuvalu’s residents have already moved to New Zealand?
3000 people of 10,800 people
hard engineering
This involves building structures along the coast (usually at the base of the cliff or on a beach), e.g. sea walls, groynes and revetments.
soft engineering
This approach is designed to work with natural processes in the coastal system, in order to manage (but not necessarily prevent) erosion.
Why is coastal management needed?- Sea Level Rise
- global warming, resulting from an enhanced greenhouse effect, is currently responsible for some eustatic change
Why is coastal management needed?- Threat of Cliff Erosion
- coastlines are relatively fragile geomorphologically. High energy levels from winds and waves, currents and tides mean that flows of materials can be disrupted.
- Some geologies are soft and susceptible to marine and sub-aerial, thus promoting mass movement.
- As sea levels increase, frequency and intensity of storms also increase the rate of marine processes may further exacerbate the threat of cliff erosion.
resilience
The ability to cope with risks reflects the resilience that a country, community, household or individual has.
planning for coastal change
- growing awareness of the interactions and interdependence among the natural components of the coastal zone,
- the increased complexity of issues arising in the use of coastal locations and the acknowledgement of the various scales, spatial and temporal, that coastal management needs to take into account , has resulted in new decision making.
hard engineering examples
- groynes
- rip rap
- sea walls
- revetments
- offshore breakwater
