A study warns of the vulnerability of coastal areas in the face of the current climatic emergency due to the rise in sea level, that will affect the average wave characteristicsespecially in certain regions such as the coasts of the southwest, the east of the oceanic basins and in the polar areas, which could affect long-term coastal processes.
The work, which is titled "Dissemination for Transitional Wave Climate Regions on Continental and Polar Coasts in a Warming World"has been published in the magazine "Nature Climate Change".
In this scientific article, prepared by several researchers, including Itxaso Odériz, from the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of the University of Cantabria (UC), in northern Spain, the high sensitivity of coastal areas to meteorological events and alterations is pointed out. climatologies on multiple time scales (from storms to variations that last more than years or decades).
In addition, as reported by the university in a statement, it is also highlighted that climate change affects the average wave characteristicsmodifying the frequency of occurrence of global wave climates (East, South and West).
Coastal areas where waves change frequency, and inherently change direction and energy, They are called wave climatic transition regions. that the study identifies in the coasts of the southwest, the east of the oceanic basins and in the polar regions.
The studies carried out show that the global wave climate is made up of three main climates, driven by the atmospheric circulation that affect the coasts of the whole world: the waves of the south (generated by subpolar and subtropical winds), the waves of the east (generated by the trade and polar winds) and waves from the west (generated in the extra tropical and monsoon region).
this classification is based on an analysis of the spatial and temporal variations of these wave climates under global warming scenarios proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the end of the 21st century.
The scientific team of the study has detected that the great increase in wave energy is concentrated in high latitudes of the Southern Ocean, induced by a poleward intensification of the extra-tropical atmospheric circulation.
The results obtained showed that the southern swell climatic transition regions (coasts with an increase in the frequency of southern swells) are found in the eastern Pacific, the southeastern Atlantic and the eastern Indian Ocean.
The most intense waves that have been affecting the Pacific coast of the American continent during the last decade belong to this wave climate.
