Climate Change
For the southeast of the UK the trend in climate is towards hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter, winters, with increased storminess. Combined with sea level rise the likelihood of flooding and greater coastal erosion is a real threat to both people and the existing habitats and species around the Solent.
There may also be a significant effect on the coast due to storminess and associated wave and surge actions, with rivers also seeking to discharge higher flows into the sea. This may in turn, affect flooding on the low coast and in river estuaries, as well as erosion of coastal and intertidal features such as shingle banks and mudflats.
Such physical changes to the coast will also significantly impact on human activity. Where we live, take part in recreation and work will all be influenced by changes in our natural environment. There are many difficult choices to be made in the future as we learn to live with different weather patterns and more severe weather events.
Work has already begun by many coastal bodies responsible for managing the coast to identify areas under threat and look at how such threats can be mitigated. Such work will be increasingly important in the future.
The following points have been adapted from Rising to the Challenge: Impacts of climate change in the South East in the 21st century. Published in November 1999 by a consortium of local authorities, NGO’s and private companies.
The Changing Climate:
- Over the past century the average temperature has risen by 0.5C. The current rate is 0.1- 0.3C per decade
- Summer rainfall is decreasing, however annual rainfall is increasing
- Sea level is rising at an estimated 1.5mm/year, this is exacerbated by southern Britain falling due to isostatic change resulting from the last ice age
- By 2050, sea level in the English Channel will be 34 cm higher and 54 cm higher by 2080
- There will be a greater frequency of severe gales
- Increasing incidence of storm surge tides
