The Sea Level at Port Arthur, Tasmania, from 1841 to the Present

Hunter, John; Coleman, Richard; Pugh, David

doi:10.1029/2002gl016813

Cited by 47 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…The sedimentary estimates of sea level have been plotted with zero trend for the early part of the record. The estimated local sea level (compared with present day local sea level and corrected for GIA) in ancient Roman times , near the start of the tide gauge record at Amsterdam and Liverpool (Woodworth 1999) and at the Port Arthur (Tasmania, Australia) benchmark in 1840 (Hunter et al 2003) are shown in red, brown, light blue and dark blue respectively. The error bars on these estimates are one standard deviation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding global sea levels: past, present and future

et al. 2008

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The coastal zone has changed profoundly during the 20 th century and as a result society is becoming increasingly vulnerable to the impact of sea-level rise and variability. This and in situ observational activities need to be sustained and new activities supported. To the extent that we are able to sustain these observations, research programmes utilizing the resulting data should be able to significantly improve our understanding and narrow projections of future sea-level rise and variability.4

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding global sea levels: past, present and future

et al. 2008

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“…Modern sea-level measurements began in Australia with the first sea-level benchmark at Port Arthur in about 1840 (Hunter et al 2003), followed by the installation of tide gauges in Fort Denison (Sydney) in 1886 and Fremantle in 1897 (Figure 1). After 1966, there is sufficient data for the assessment of mean sea-level trends for all sectors of the Australian coastline, with high quality satellite altimeter data also available since 1993.…”

Section: Australian Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information for Australian impact and adaptation planning in response to sea-level rise

McInnes¹,

Church²,

Monselesan³

et al. 2015

AMOJ

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Sea levels along Australia's coastline are influenced by natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. Projections of sea-level rise (SLR) for 2090 for the Australian coastline are similar to the global mean sea-level projections. The global and regional projections are almost independent of the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) for greenhouse gas emissions chosen for the first decades of the 21 st century, but they begin to diverge significantly from about 2050. For the business-as-usual scenario (RCP8.5), the rates increase steadily through the 21 st century, reaching almost 12 mm yr -1 by 2100 at all locations. For the intermediate scenarios of RCP 6.0 and RCP 4.5, the rates stabilise in about 2090 and 2060 at about 7-8 and 6 mm yr -1 , respectively. For the strong mitigation scenario (RCP 2.6, requiring significant and urgent mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions), the rate of rise stabilises much earlier than the other scenarios and then reduces slightly to about 4 mm yr -1 . On the north and west coasts of Australia, the observed sea-level trends from the start of the projections in 1996 to 2010 are larger than the model projections as a result of the combined effect of SLR and internal modes of climate variability.The impacts of SLR will be felt most profoundly during extreme sea-level events. The meteorological and climate processes that contribute to extreme sea levels around the coast of Australia are highly regionally heterogeneous. Allowances were calculated that provide estimates of the height that present assets or their protective measures would need to be raised to ensure that the likelihood of exceedance of those levels in the future does not change from the present climate. These allowances vary according to SLR projections, their uncertainties and the variability of extreme sea levels. For 2030, when the uncertainty surrounding future SLR scenarios is small, the allowances are approximately the median projected SLR. However by 2090, the larger uncertainties associated with the projections lead to allowances that typically lie towards the upper end of the range of projected SLR. IntroductionSea-level rise (SLR) is a significant concern for Australia with about half the population living within 7 km of the coast (Chen and McAneney, 2006) and a significant amount of industry and infrastructure located in the coastal zone. Between 22 and 35% of residential dwellings in Australia have been identified as potentially exposed to flooding under a SLR scenario of 1.1 metres (Department of Climate Change, 2009 Coastal infrastructure and coastal ecosystems are most at risk during extreme sea-level events, caused by storm surges and other contributing factors such as astronomical tides. It is therefore of vital importance that credible and robust up-to-date information on SLR projections and the impacts on extreme events are available for coastal planning and adaptation.The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) assessments are a major source of SLR information, with ...

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“…The essential factor in such studies is that the historical tide gauge benchmarks must have survived to the present day. For example, Hunter et al (2003) made use of measurements at Port Arthur, Tasmania from 1841-2, together with more recent measurements, with the conclusion that sea level had risen at an average rate of 1.0 ± 0.3 mm/year, after a small correction for vertical land movement. Woodworth et al (2010a) performed a similar analysis at Port Louis, Falkland Islands where James Clark Ross measured sea levels in 1842.…”

Section: Century-timescale Acceleration In Sea Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Century-Timescale Acceleration in Mean Sea Levels and for Recent Changes in Extreme Sea Levels

2011

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Two of the most important topics in Sea Level Science are addressed in this paper. One is concerned with the evidence for the apparent acceleration in the rate of global sea level change between the 19 th and 20 th centuries and, thereby, with the question of whether the 20 th century sea level rise was a consequence of an accelerated climate change of anthropogenic origin. An acceleration is indeed observed in both tide gauge and saltmarsh data at different locations around the world, yielding quadratic coefficients 'c' of order 0.005 mm/year 2 , and with the most rapid changes of rate of sea level rise occurring around the end of the 19 th century. The second topic refers to whether there is evidence that extreme sea levels have increased in recent decades at rates significantly different from those in mean levels. Recent results, which suggest that at most locations rates of change of extreme and mean sea levels are comparable, are presented. In addition, a short review is given of recent work on extreme sea levels by other authors. This body of work, which is focused primarily on Europe and the Mediterranean, also tends to support mean and extreme sea levels changing at similar rates at most locations.

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The Sea Level at Port Arthur, Tasmania, from 1841 to the Present

Cited by 47 publications

References 11 publications

Understanding global sea levels: past, present and future

Understanding global sea levels: past, present and future

Information for Australian impact and adaptation planning in response to sea-level rise

Evidence for Century-Timescale Acceleration in Mean Sea Levels and for Recent Changes in Extreme Sea Levels

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