Author(s): Achilleas G. Samaras
Linked Author(s): Achilleas Samaras
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: The term Watershed-Coast Systems (WACS), coined by Samaras and Koutitas (2014a), refers to the entities consisting of watersheds of rivers/natural streams and the areas adjacent to their outlets where sediment delivery from the upstream is critical for the balance of the coastal sediment budget, thus playing a key role in long-term evolution of coastal morphology. The study of such systems in a changing climate emerges as an issue of major concern nowadays, as the shift in climate pressures will affect both watersheds and coastal zones, and implications will extend from morphological to ecological and socio-economic ones, threatening ecosystems, cultural heritage, settlements, infrastructure, as well as human life. From this standpoint, the physical problem in question can be divided into four basic components: (A) climate change; (B) watershed dynamics; (C) coastal dynamics; and (D) integration of the Watershed-Coast System (Fig. 1). Components (B) and (C) have been studied in detail over the years; the last few decades so are (A) and the impact of (A) on (B) and of (A) on (C). Numerical models have been proven essential in the above, with various models and modelling systems currently available which are able to represent natural processes at different scales in space and time. However, the critical component (D) – which independently of (A) defines the essence of the WACS concept – has not been analysed to the extent one would expect to, considering its importance for coastal evolution modelling.
Year: 2022