Effects of climate change on waves, tides and sand ridges in the North Sea (Speaker: Huib de Swart, IMAU, Utrecht University)

Speaker: Huib de Swart, IMAU, Utrecht University

In the North Sea, as well as in many other coastal seas with sandy beds, tidal currents and waves are often sufficiently strong to erode the bottom, transport the sediment and deposit the material elsewhere. In turn, the resulting changes of the bed level affect the water motion. These feedbacks are further altered by changes in climate conditions. In this presentation, the effects of changes in mean sea level and wind climate on waves and tides in the North Sea is reviewed. After that, the impacts of climate change on the evolution of tidal sand ridges, which are large scale (km size) bed forms on the shelf, will be discussed. Conditions will be shown under which these ridges remain active, become partially active or inactive