Anegada, British Virgin Islands. Photograph: © SAF
Excerpts;
Professor Andrew Cooper, Professor of Coastal Studies in the School of Environmental Sciences at the university’s Coleraine campus, said a rise in sea level of even a few feet could threaten some of the world’s most iconic resorts.
Professor Cooper has investigated and reported on the world’s coasts in a research and teaching career that has taken him to more than 50 countries on six continents over the past quarter century. He co-authored the book The World’s Beaches: a global guide to the science of the shoreline last year.
The Coleraine-based academic said that while the most pervasive driver of coastal change at present is global sea level rise, rising sea levels alone do not necessarily threaten beaches, the problem arises when beaches are artificially hemmed in and not given room to move.
“Beaches have survived 120 m of sea level rise over the last ten thousand years. Problems only arise if we don’t give beaches room to move and to adjust to the changing sea level,” he said…
