The damage that climate change could cause to nearly one fifth of Scotland’s coastline, and the steps that could be taken to mitigate it, will be forecast in a new two year research project.
The next phase of DynamicCoast.com will use the latest monitoring techniques to map and categorise the resilience of the Scottish coast and identify the links between erosion and flooding.
The research, led by the Scottish Government and SNH and carried out by the University of Glasgow, launches in January 2018 and is funded by CREW (Centre for Expertise in Water).
It will focus on specific study sites including Montrose Bay, St Andrews and Skara Brae, to forecast future change and erosional damage. The project will work with stakeholders like local authorities, SEPA and Historic Environment Scotland to develop plans to mitigate these effects.
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Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Roseanna Cunningham said:
“Rising sea levels, increased coastal erosion and flooding have caused substantial damage to our coastlines and communities over the last few decades and the pace of erosion is increasing. We need to take action now to adapt and adjust to these changes.
“This research will forecast the extent of damage that could be caused to our precious coastlines through the effects of climate change and will work with communities, local authorities, transport agencies and other planning bodies to develop plans to manage coastal change before it’s too late.”
Scottish Natural Heritage is managing DynamicCoast.com.
This research follows on from ‘Dynamic Coast: Scotland’s National Coastal Change Assessment’ (NCCA) published in August 2017, which used more than 2,000 maps and one million data points to identify past erosion and growth rates. Using these rates of change the Dynamic Coast map shows the potential change to Scotland’s coastline by 2050.
Read the full article at Gov.Scot.
Tags: Climate change, Policy, Protection, Research, Tech