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Project 3.03: Impact of climate change on the budget of suspended particulate matters in North Sea estuaries

Dr Axel Winterscheid, BfG,
Department M3 - Groundwater, Geology, River Morphology
Tel. +49 (0) 261/1306-5190, winterscheid@bafg.de


Objectives

Climate change can affect the morphodynamics and sediment balance of the German North Sea estuaries of the Elbe, Weser and Ems rivers. This means a further challenge for the management of the mode of transport “waterway” in terms of ensuring the necessary fairway depths for navigation and for the maintenance and improvement of the present overall ecological state of these estuaries. The overriding result of this project will be the acquisition of a better understanding of transport processes and boundary conditions in the natural environment, as these will be affected by changed climatic conditions in the future, and of their cumulative impact on sediment dynamics.

In the first stage, this project will describe the present state of the estuarine sediment balance of the Elbe, Weser and Ems on the basis of field data recorded over many years and will identify the existing morphological trends. Next, the possible impact on the sediment dynamics will be quantified due to factors that are subject to climate change. Potentially cumulative effects of increased frequency and intensity of hydrological and meteorological extreme events are of special interest here.

This new knowledge basis will be incorporated into the development of projections of climate-induced changes in the estuarine sediment and morphodynamics of the North Sea estuaries of the Elbe, Weser and Ems rivers.

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