Coasts and climate

Geomorphology is increasingly engaged with the connections between coastal behaviour and climate variability and change. While impacts of climate change at the coast are often primarily viewed in terms of landform adjustments to accelerated sea-level rise, geomorphologists are also starting to unlock the subtleties of how coastal processes are forced by a broader suite of climate factors. This progress report highlights three main strands of recent geomorphological research in this vein: the search for a broader suite of climatic signatures in recent coastal deposits; empirical analyses of the linkages between climate variables and contemporary shoreline change; and enhancement of our capability to predictively model climate-driven changes in coastal morphology.