Extreme coastal erosion enhanced by anomalous extratropical storm wave direction.

Autor:	Harley MD; Water Research Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, 110 King Street, Manly Vale, New South Wales, 2093, Australia. m.harley@unsw.edu.au., Turner IL; Water Research Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, 110 King Street, Manly Vale, New South Wales, 2093, Australia., Kinsela MA; Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Government, 59 Goulburn Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia., Middleton JH; School of Aviation, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia., Mumford PJ; School of Aviation, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, 2052, Australia., Splinter KD; Water Research Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, 110 King Street, Manly Vale, New South Wales, 2093, Australia., Phillips MS; Water Research Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, 110 King Street, Manly Vale, New South Wales, 2093, Australia., Simmons JA; Water Research Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, 110 King Street, Manly Vale, New South Wales, 2093, Australia., Hanslow DJ; Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Government, 59 Goulburn Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia., Short AD; School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Scientific reports [Sci Rep] 2017 Jul 20; Vol. 7 (1), pp. 6033. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Jul 20.
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-017-05792-1
Abstrakt:	Extratropical cyclones (ETCs) are the primary driver of large-scale episodic beach erosion along coastlines in temperate regions. However, key drivers of the magnitude and regional variability in rapid morphological changes caused by ETCs at the coast remain poorly understood. Here we analyze an unprecedented dataset of high-resolution regional-scale morphological response to an ETC that impacted southeast Australia, and evaluate the new observations within the context of an existing long-term coastal monitoring program. This ETC was characterized by moderate intensity (for this regional setting) deepwater wave heights, but an anomalous wave direction approximately 45 degrees more counter-clockwise than average. The magnitude of measured beach volume change was the largest in four decades at the long-term monitoring site and, at the regional scale, commensurate with that observed due to extreme North Atlantic hurricanes. Spatial variability in morphological response across the study region was predominantly controlled by alongshore gradients in storm wave energy flux and local coastline alignment relative to storm wave direction. We attribute the severity of coastal erosion observed due to this ETC primarily to its anomalous wave direction, and call for greater research on the impacts of changing storm wave directionality in addition to projected future changes in wave heights.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:	Zobrazit plný text záznamu