Limits and perspectives to assessing morphological resilience in the Wadden Sea

The world heritage site Wadden Sea on the Northwestern European continental shelf is the world’s largest coherent channel-shoal environment. It hosts numerous unique ecosystems and serves as natural coastal protection for the mainland. As one of the world’s most frequently monitored coasts, its morphological evolution under relative sea level rise (SLR, includes vertical land movement) was studied intensely and can be considered as benchmark for the adaptation of other tidal flat and marsh areas 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 .