Assessing the vulnerability of changing coasts Ha

Authors: Yaping Wang Benwei Shi Liang Zhang Jianjun Jia Xiaomin Xia Liang Zhou Rui Yu Yang Yang Jianhua Gao

Publish Date: 2017/01/26

Volume: 36, Issue: 4, Pages: 114-120

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Abstract

Knowledge of coastline changes and vulnerability is of great importance to local government departments that are responsible for the management and development of coastal zones To study the nature of change and vulnerability along the coasts of the Hainan Island we collected a large number of sediment samples through the last few years and reconstructed the changes of the coastline by combining the data of sediment grainsize analysis and the nautical charts/TM RS imaginary Contrary to being almost free from erosion as expected from the findings that the coastlines are in a relatively stable state four major cities in Hainan ie Haikou Wenchang Sanya and Changjiang turned out to be suffered from a moderate coastal vulnerability primarily because of the large populations that impose considerable pressure on the coastlines Thus the assessment methodology utilized in this study including both anthropogenic and natural factors serves as a useful tool to obtain a comprehensive understanding of coastline vulnerability for local government in terms of coastal management and adaptationFoundation item The Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean under contract No 2011050012 the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No 41625021 China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under contract No 2015M580409

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