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PHYSICAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON DELTAIC COASTAL SYSTEMS (II): DRIVING TERMS

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Abstract

The evaluation of the impact of climatic change on deltaic coastal systems requires establishing a ‘reference situation’. As deltaic coastal zones are highly dynamic areas, it is necessary to define the reference situation as a function of their present evolutive stage. This implies characterizing coastal processes as a complex system defined by the links between driving or forcing terms and the coastal response at different temporal and spatial scales (‘long/large’, ‘medium’ and ‘episodic’ scales). Starting from classical previous works on deltaic systems and including all available field and conceptual knowledge to properly consider present conditions (largely regulated rivers, subsidence, etc.) a detailed methodology to analyse forcing or driving agents at the three mentioned scales is presented. This methodology which developed the general approach presented in a companion paper, will be followed by a future paper focusing on the analysis of the coastal response.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratori d'Enginyeria Marítima, Catalonia University of Technology, c/Gran Capitá s/n, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    JOSÉ A. JIMÉNEZ & AGUSTIN SÁNCHEZ-ARCILLA

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  1. JOSÉ A. JIMÉNEZ
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  2. AGUSTIN SÁNCHEZ-ARCILLA
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JIMÉNEZ, J.A., SÁNCHEZ-ARCILLA, A. PHYSICAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON DELTAIC COASTAL SYSTEMS (II): DRIVING TERMS. Climatic Change 35, 95–118 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005319515943

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