Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward

Gonéri Le Cozannet (1) , Robert Nicholls (2) , Jochen Hinkel (3, 4) , William V Sweet (5) , Kathleen L Mcinnes (6) , Roderik S W van de Wal (7) , Aimée B.A. Slangen (8) , Jason Lowe (9) , Kathleen D White (10)

1 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières
2 University of Southampton
3 Global Climate Forum e.V.
4 Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut für Agrar- und Gartenbauwissenschaften
5 NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
6 CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Canberra]
7 IMAU - Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research [Utrecht]
8 NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
9 United Kingdom Met Office [Exeter]
10 USACE - US Army Corps of Engineers

For many climate change impacts such as drought and heat waves, global and national frameworks for climate services are providing ever more critical support to adaptation activities. Coastal zones are especially in need of climate services for adaptation, as they are increasingly threatened by sea level rise and its impacts, such as submergence, flooding, shoreline erosion, salinization and wetland change. In this paper, we examine how annual to multi-decadal sea level projections can be used within coastal climate services (CCS). To this end, we review the current state-of-the art of coastal climate services in the US, Australia and France, and identify lessons learned. More broadly, we also review current barriers in the development of CCS, and identify research and development efforts for overcoming barriers and facilitating their continued growth. The latter includes: (1) research in the field of sea level, coastal and adaptation science and (2) cross-cutting research in the area of user interactions, decision making, propagation of uncertainties and overall service architecture design. We suggest that standard approaches are required to translate relative sea level information into the forms required to inform the wide range of relevant decisions across coastal management, including coastal adaptation.

Mots clés: climate services; coastal zones; sea level projections

Domaines: Océanographie; Climatologie

Gonéri Le Cozannet, Robert Nicholls, Jochen Hinkel, William V Sweet, Kathleen L Mcinnes, et al.. Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 2017, 5 (4), pp.49. ⟨10.3390/jmse5040049⟩. ⟨hal-01620624⟩