Anthropocene Coasts最新文献

Globally, coastal managers are challenged to make informed decisions when selecting coastal infrastructure to respond to climate-induced sea-level rise and associated coastal hazards like coastal erosion and flooding. Classifying the types of coastal infrastructure permits the comparison of their potential efficiency, environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and long-term response to sea-level rise. At present, information on coastal infrastructure implemented along the coastal area of Ghana is not known thus creating a research gap to catalog this information. To achieve this, we combined satellite images from Google Earth Pro and the use of ArcGIS capabilities to conduct a national assessment of coastal infrastructure and its distribution along the coast of Ghana. Even though similar approaches have been applied in different geographic contexts, this article focuses on evaluating coastal infrastructure in Ghana. Results show that between 2004 and 2022, at least 110 km or approximately 20% of the coast of Ghana has been protected using grey infrastructure, distributed as groins 35.9 km (6.5%), revetments and seawalls 50 km (9%), and jetties and port breakwaters 25 km (4.5%) of the 550 Km coastline. These do not include the numerous private recreational infrastructure that could increase coastal vulnerability. The increasing use of grey infrastructure, particularly seawalls, and revetments along the coast has adverse impacts on overall coastal evolution and causes socioeconomic challenges. This study supports coastal managers to review coastal adaptation policy and develop shoreline management plans for the coast of Ghana.

Grain size distributions are widely used to describe sedimentary geochemistry, depositional environment, and sediment transportation. The objective of this study is to analyze grain size distributions of modern sandy beach sediments in Sri Lanka. Sediment samples (n = 90) were collected from beach berm, representing the entire coastline of Sri Lanka. Grain sizes were determined by the dry-sieving method. Statistical parameters such as mean size, sorting, skewness, and kurtosis were calculated using GRADISTAT_V9.1 software for all the sieved sediment samples. Grain size variations (108.2 – 609.8 µm) show that Sri Lanka mainly consists of medium sand, whereas the northeast part of the country mixes with fine sand due to the influence of Bengal fan sediments. The variations of skewness (-0.229 – 0.446) and sorting (1.305 – 2.436) indicate symmetrical distributed moderately sorted samples. These variations specify a moderate energy depositional environment/wave action around the coastline of Sri Lanka. In addition, grain size analysis confirmed relatively high and low energy deposition environments on the west and east coasts, respectively. Accordingly, the west coast is more vulnerable to coastal erosion compared to the east coast of Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study provides the baseline grain size distribution data that can be used in decision-making for coastal zone management by mitigating beach erosion.

The assessment of river ecosystem health is crucial for improving river resilience, achieving ecological protection and rational utilization in the Yangtze Estuary region where there is high utilization of rivers and a high demand for quality rivers by Shanghai, the world's largest modern city. To assess the ecological health status of Yangtze Estuary rivers, this study established a river health assessment model consisting of five dimensions: water quality, river landscape, aquatic organisms, river hydrology, and human interference, and a total of ten indicators based on the ecological survey results in the summer and autumn of six river channels in Chongming Island in the Yangtze Estuary. The evaluation results reveal that the health status of rural rivers in the northwest and east of Chongming Island (S2, S3) is the best, reaching an excellent level, while the small river in the central part of Chongming Island (S6) is the worst, reaching a somewhat inferior level. Compared with rural rivers, the comprehensive evaluation results of urban rivers are good or ordinary level. The high proportion of building area on both sides of the river and the low vegetation cover are the main factors that restrict their scoring results. In contrast, rural rivers need to focus on the area of buffer zones such as forests and vegetation on both sides of the river, river connectivity, appropriate widening of narrow rivers, regular cleaning and dredging of rivers, as well as reducing human interference with the rivers. Regarding seasonal changes, the health assessment results of Chongming Island rivers in summer are better than those in autumn, and the differences between sites in summer are slightly greater than those in autumn. The seasonal differences between sites are mainly due to changes in indicators of the diversity of zooplankton, phytoplankton, and macrobenthos. To further improve the ecological health of rivers, measures of ecological restoration could be adjusted based on regular health assessment and health weakness analysis.

In AD1128, the Yellow River shifted its course from the Bohai Sea to the South Yellow Sea (SYS) due to anthropogenic dike excavation, starting the development of the Abandoned Yellow River Delta (AYRD) that lasted for more than 700 years (AD1128-1855). However, the sediment flux of the abandoned Yellow River into the sea is in a state of change due to human activities, and the growth process of the AYRD is not well understood. Here, we investigate the growth process of the AYRD and its sedimentary record characteristics over the last millennium based on three cores collected from the AYRD.

The results show that the main sediment types in the AYRD are silt, mud and sandy silt. After AD1128, the grain size components in the sediments of the AYRD showed significant stage changes with the sand content first starting to decrease. The clay content increased and remained at a high percentage in the middle to late 14th century, followed by a sharp increase from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century, due to a further increase in sediment flux from the abandoned Yellow River into the sea. A slight increase in the proportion of sand content during the final stage of the transition from subaqueous delta to terrestrial delta is a distinctive feature of the sedimentary record, and this change persists for 10 ~ 90 years in different core records.

This study further proposes a schematic model of the development of the AYRD: (a) before the 16th century, the sediments were deposited mainly in the estuary and nearshore, with rapid vertical accretion; (b) After the 16th century, the horizontal land formation was the main focus, and the rate of seaward extension increased rapidly. This model also reflects the following pattern: when the sediment flux from the river into the sea is certain, the rate of land formation is inversely proportional to the rate of vertical accretion. The dominant factors affecting the evolution of the AYRD are the sediment flux into the sea and initial submerged topography, with less influence from sea level changes. Hydrodynamic erosion by wave and tidal forces from the outer delta began to dominate after the interruption of sediment supply due to the Yellow River mouth northward to the Bohai Sea in AD1855. This study has important implications for understanding the growth and evolution of deltas under the influence of human activities.