SUMMARY 



The possibility in the coming decades of a higher rate of relative 

 sea- level rise globally is now thought to be sufficiently great to warrant 

 serious consideration for its potential implications to civilization. With 

 regard to shoreline response to relative rise as well as the rate of rise, 

 questions emerge almost immediately about how the open coast and estuarine 

 shorelines would change. Since, for example, a significant portion of the 

 U.S. coastline is composed of loose materials including sand and muddy 

 sediment, it is evident that simple inundation models based on existing 

 terrestrial topography would be far from adequate in predicting shoreline 

 configurations for any given sea- level rise scenario. Consequently, it 

 becomes essential to examine the state-of-the-art technology in shoreline 

 prediction modeling, gaps in fundamental knowledge of coastal processes, 

 and future research needs for advancing the technology to accomplish the 

 task of prediction to a meaningful level of accuracy. 



To answer these queries the University of Florida (UF) undertook a 

 study during the summer of 1987 which resulted in a report, "Some 

 Considerations on Coastal Processes Relevant to Sea Level Rise," authored 

 by Ashish Mehta, Robert Dean, William Dally, and Clay Montague. In this 

 report the effects of potential sea-level rise on the shoreline and shore 

 environment were briefly examined by considering the interactions between 

 sea- level rise and coastal processes. These interactions were reviewed, 

 beginning with a discussion of the need to reanalyze previous estimates of 

 eustatic sea- level rise and compaction effects in water level measurement. 

 This was followed by considerations on coastal and estuarine tidal ranges, 

 storm surge and water level response, and marine interaction with natural 

 and constructed coastal features. The desirability to reexamine the well- 

 known Bruun rule for calculating shoreline recession due to the likelihood 

 of significant cross-shelf sediment transport was recognized. The 

 mechanics of salt penetration in groundwater and surface water was 

 reviewed, followed by effects of sedimentary processes in the estuaries 

 including wetland response, particularly in the fine-grained environment. 

 Finally, comments were included on some probable effects of sea- level rise 



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