Back to my notes on high tides and global warming, here in Thanet we can expect to be seriously effected by rising sea levels. So how much can we expect the sea to rise, well to start with the land is sinking by about 0.8 mm per year for geological reasons related to the last ice age. The latest predictions for the rise in sea level in this area are 1990 to 2025 4 mm per year 2025 to 2055 8.5 mm per year 2055 to 2085 12 mm per year.So by 2085 the land will have sunk by 61.6 mm and the sea risen by 640 mm giving a total rise in level of 700 mm about 27 inches. Combined with this we can expect much stormier winters.
What this means to us here in Thanet, first and foremost, is that the low-lying ground that was once the Wantsum Sea Channel that separated us from mainland Britain is vulnerable to the sea flooding back in and washing away the land.
For our two main towns Margate and Ramsgate the areas around the harbours and main beaches will be more liable to flooding and storm damage.
Those places where the cliffs are not protected by a concrete promenade will be subject to greater cliff erosion.
I would recommend reading The Shoreline Management Plan especially appendix C it makes for rather disturbing reading. Click here to read it
Its the 'no intervention' section that worries me.
ReplyDeleteI suppose they have to consider the consequences of not doing repairs to the sea defences at *all* the possible places around the coast. However, *hypothetical* questions like 'what happens if we don't maintain Ramsgate Harbour' tend to leave me a bit uneasy.
Fred