Climate change as a mechanism for reducing coastal erosion rates

The Holderness coast of eastern Yorkshire, England, is the most rapidly eroding coastline in Europe. Erosion currently threatens local communities and infrastructure, including nationally important gas installations. Interventions to restrict local erosion usually result in enhanced erosion in adjacent, unprotected sections of coast, mirroring morphology seen on the large scale. Simulation of the morphology has previously been undertaken using cliff stability models. These studies use two dimensional cross-section models to consider rotational and translational cliff failures, with topple as the pr coastal recession mechanism. Future erosion rates at each location were calculated by Castedo et al. (2012) for the remainder of this century and found to have a linear response to sea-level rise, however, the predicted response of the wave climate and sediment transport for the future were not taken into account. The two dimensional, plan evolution model (CEM) is used to assess influences of wave climate (height and angle) variability on erosion and accretion rates along the coast.