Towards a coastal simulation

of climate change impacts

The UK strategy for dealing with climate change includes a
number of regional scoping plans and models for integrated
assessment of climate change. The communities and
environments of the coastal zone, in particular, are vulnerable to
the impacts of sea level rise and other climate change impacts. The
Tyndall Centre is helping to achieve the UK’s strategic objectives
for managing coastal zones by enhancing scientific capability to
simulate the complex behaviour of estuary and beach
environments.

Professor John Dearing at the University of Liverpool’s Department

of Geography, and colleagues, are designing coastal models that
operate at scales in space and time that capture the complex
behaviour of coastline environments. This study extends recent
research using the best available geomorphic, coastal and
oceanographic information to derive mathematical rules for water
flow, sediment transport, erosion and deposition. Once the model
has been tested against historical information from Admiralty
Charts, Ordnance Survey maps and sedimentary records, it will Professor John Dearing and colleagues are designing coastal models that
operate at climate change scales in space and time to capture the
provide simulations of the impacts of sea level rise and coastal
complex behaviour of coastline environments for informing the Tyndall
defence options.
Centre’s regional coastal simulator

The model uses data from the past to simulate coastal system
behaviour through historical time to the present day. Initial
conditions will be set-up from digitised 18th and 19th century
maps and charts showing high water, water depth and the location
of channels. The model will then be driven by instrumental,
metrological, tidal and fluvial records. These include tides, wind,
sea-level, sediment input and river flow.

The study focuses on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex which has

been monitored by the Environment Agency and English Nature
and has maps and charts from 1777 onwards. The model will be
applicable to both tide and wave-dominated coastline, and
provides essential input to the Tyndall Centre’s Regional Coastal
Simulator.

More information Useful Websites

Contact the lead investigator of Project T3.41 (Towards a high resolution Proudman Oceanographic Institute
cellular model for coastal simulation): www.pol.ac.uk
Professor John Dearing
Department of Geography Tyndall Centre’s Sustaining the Coastal Zone research theme
University of Liverpool www.tyndall.ac.uk/research/theme4/theme4.shtml
Liverpool L69 7ZT
Tel: 0151 794 2873 Tyndall Centre’s Integrated Regional Coastal Simulator
j.dearing@liv.ac.uk www.tyndall.ac.uk/research/theme4/theme4_flagship.shtml

Other researchers involved in this project are: Tyndall Centre’s Calculating the Costs and Benefits of Managed
Dr Nicola Richmond and Dr Andrew Plater, Department of Geography, Realignment project
University of Liverpool www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/fact_sheets/t2_41.shtml
Dr Judith Wolf, David Prandle, John Williams, Roger Proctor, Alex Souza,
Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Birkenhead Project duration:
Professor Andrew Watkinson, Tyndall Centre HQ, University of East Anglia July 2003 – August 2004
Dr Tom Coulthard, Department of Geography, University of Wales

Round 3