Time is running out for sand

Bendixen, Mette; Best, James L.; Hackney, Christopher; Iversen, Lars

doi:10.1038/d41586-019-02042-4

Cited by 306 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Also, the bottom of the North Sea may have insufficient producible volumes of sand for nourishment and socio-economic developments may compete for sand as a resource (e.g. for building infrastructure [86,87]). This suggests that a different governance may be needed to accommodate the scale and frequency of the required nourishment (e.g.…”

Section: Coastline Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation to uncertain sea-level rise; how uncertainty in Antarctic mass-loss impacts the coastal adaptation strategy of the Netherlands

Haasnoot

Kwadijk

Alphen³

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Uncertainties in the rate and magnitude of sea-level rise (SLR) complicate decision making on coastal adaptation. Large uncertainty arises from potential ice mass-loss from Antarctica that could rapidly increase SLR in the second half of this century. The implications of SLR may be existential for a lowlying country like the Netherlands and warrant exploration of high-impact low-likelihood scenarios. To deal with uncertain SLR, the Netherlands has adopted an adaptive pathways plan. This paper analyzes the implications of storylines leading to extreme SLR for the current adaptive plan in the Netherlands, focusing on flood risk, fresh water resources, and coastline management. It further discusses implications for coastal adaptation in low-lying coastal zones considering timescales of adaptation including the decisions lifetime and lead-in time for preparation and implementation. We find that as sea levels rise faster and higher, sand nourishment volumes to maintain the Dutch coast may need to be up to 20 times larger than to date in 2100, storm surge barriers will need to close at increasing frequency until closed permanently, and intensified saltwater intrusion will reduce freshwater availability while the demand is rising. The expected lifetime of investments will reduce drastically. Consequently, step-wise adaptation needs to occur at an increasing frequency or with larger increments while there is still large SLR uncertainty with the risk of under-or overinvesting. Anticipating deeply uncertain, high SLR scenarios helps to enable timely adaptation and to appreciate the value of emission reduction and monitoring of the Antarctica contribution to SLR.

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Section: Coastline Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation to uncertain sea-level rise; how uncertainty in Antarctic mass-loss impacts the coastal adaptation strategy of the Netherlands

Haasnoot

Kwadijk

Alphen³

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…The flexibility and complexity that can be afforded by video games has made them an attractive tool for engaging people with complex issues such as climate change (Porter and Córdoba, 2009;Reason, 2007;Warburton, 2003). This has led to the development of "serious games", games where learning is a core objective without losing sight of the entertainment element (Abt, 1987;Charsky, 2010;Crookall, 2010), and there are several studies showing that serious games have been effective in delivering the intended learning outcomes (Amory et al, 1999;Bellotti et al, 2013;Betz, 1995;Chin et al, 2009;Coleman et al, 1973;Connolly et al, 2012;Gosen and Washbush, 2004;Hobbs et al, 2018Hobbs et al, , 2019Lane and Yi, 2017;Mani et al, 2016;Mitchell and Savill-Smith, 2004;Vogel et al, 2006;Wilson et al, 2009). Serious games can be used to create virtual analogues of real world places or physical phenomena for public engagement, such as volcanism (Hobbs et al, 2018(Hobbs et al, , 2019Mani et al, 2016).…”

Section: Video Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flash Flood!: a SeriousGeoGames activity combining science festivals, video games, and virtual reality with research data for communicating flood risk and geomorphology

Skinner

2020

Geosci. Commun.

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Abstract. The risk of flooding around the world is large and increasing, yet in many areas there is still a difficulty in engaging the public with their own flood risk. Geomorphology is a science that is linked to flooding and can exacerbate risks, but awareness of the science with the public is low and declining within academia. To increase awareness, it is important to engage the public directly with the science and those who are working to reduce flood risks – this starts by inspiring people to seek out further information through positive experiences of the science and researchers. Here, a new design model is presented to engage the public with specific research projects by using useful components offered by the popular mediums of games, virtual reality (VR), and science festivals to allow the public to get “hands on” with research data and models: SeriousGeoGames. A SeriousGeoGames activity, Flash Flood!, was developed around real geomorphology survey data to help engage the public with a flood-risk-related research project by placing them in a river valley as it undergoes a geomorphically active flooding from an intense rainfall event. Flash Flood! was exhibited at two science-focussed events, and formal evaluation was captured using a short questionnaire, finding that the majority of audience had a positive interaction (95.1 %) and wanted to know more about flooding (68.0 %) and geomorphology (60.1 %). It is hoped these interactions will increase the likelihood that future engagements with relevant agencies will be more fruitful, especially when it matters most.

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“…Additionally, over 40 dams, ranging from small to very large (> 5 GW) have been announced and are either in planning or construction stage on the two rivers, with a total capacity of more than 45 GW (Hennig, 2016;Kirchherr et al, 2017;Lazarus et al, 2019), which will significantly alter their water and sediment discharge dynamics. In addition, Southeast Asian river sand is a major construction resource that is often unsustainably dredged and becoming increasingly scarce, resulting in bank erosion and collapse downstream and condemning low-lying river deltas to seawater intrusion and inundation (Xiqing et al, 2006;Kondolf et al, 2018;Best, 2019;Bendixen et al, 2019;Hackney et al, 2020). Collectively, damming, sand mining, and climate change have already impacted sediment delivery to the Irrawaddy delta, altering its extent and morphology (D. Chen et al, 2020).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating suspended sediment flux in large alluvial river channels: Application of a synoptic Rouse-based model to the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers

Baronas¹,

Stevenson²,

Hackney³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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A large portion of freshwater and sediment is exported to the ocean by a small number of major rivers. Many of these mega-rivers are subject to substantial anthropogenic pressures, which are having a major impact on water and sediment delivery to deltaic ecosystems. Due to hydrodynamic sorting, sediment grain size and composition varies strongly with depth and across the channel in large rivers, complicating flux quantification. To account for this, we modified a semi-empirical Rouse model, synoptically predicting sediment concentration, grain size distribution, and organic carbon (%OC) composition with depth and across the river channel. Using suspended sediment depth samples and flow velocity data, we applied this model to calculate sediment fluxes of the Irrawaddy and the Salween, the last two free-flowing mega-rivers in Southeast Asia. Deriving sediment-discharge rating curves, we calculated an annual sediment flux of 326^+91-70 Mt/yr for the Irrawaddy and 159 (+78, -51) Mt/yr for the Salween, together exporting 46% as much sediment as the Ganges-Brahmaputra system. The mean flux-weighted sediment exported by the Irrawaddy is significantly coarser (D84 = 193 ± 13 µm) and OC-poorer (0.29 ± 0.08 wt%) compared to the Salween (112 ± 27 µm and 0.59 ± 0.16 wt%, respectively). Both rivers export similar amounts of particulate organic carbon, with a total of 1.9 (+1.4, -0.9) Mt C/yr, 53% as much as the Ganges-Brahmaputra. These results underline the global significance of the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers and warrant continued monitoring of their sediment flux, given the increasing anthropogenic pressures on these river basins.

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Time is running out for sand

Cited by 306 publications

References 8 publications

Adaptation to uncertain sea-level rise; how uncertainty in Antarctic mass-loss impacts the coastal adaptation strategy of the Netherlands

Adaptation to uncertain sea-level rise; how uncertainty in Antarctic mass-loss impacts the coastal adaptation strategy of the Netherlands

Flash Flood!: a SeriousGeoGames activity combining science festivals, video games, and virtual reality with research data for communicating flood risk and geomorphology

Integrating suspended sediment flux in large alluvial river channels: Application of a synoptic Rouse-based model to the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers

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