中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumEstuary response to climate change and human impact: Managing the future with reference to the past
Authors: Andrew J. Plater
Present and future coastal populations rely on healthy estuarine, deltaic and lagoonal ecosystems for the delivery of goods and services that support human well-being. Sustainable provision of these ecosystem goods and services is highly dependent on effective management at the land-ocean interface under increasing pressure from climate change, population growth and human impact on catchment land-use and river hydrology. Examples are drawn from coastal wetlands over a range of timescales (Holocene to the present) to illustrate their sedimentary and geomorphic evolution in response to changing sea-level, climate, fluvial sediment flux and coastal morphology. Particular attention is given to coastal wetlands under conditions of high relative sea-level rise and reduced terrestrial sediment delivery during the mid-Holocene as a model for future estuary hinterlands where climate change is leading to accelerated sea-level rise and where river flow is becoming increasing impounded and recycled.
Andrew J. Plater
Department of Geography and the Institute for Sustainable Water, Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER)
University of Liverpool