Climate change is having a strong impact on the Mediterranean coasts. The sea level there is rising three times faster than predicted, which could threaten human activities and infrastructure by the end of the century, says a new report from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
The report also highlights that they had not considered the slow sinking of large coastal areas, which worsens the situation, before.
“Radboud University in the Netherlands also worked on the report that states that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has underestimated the current predictions of sea level rise for all coasts, released in 2021.”
Land subsidence aggravates the situation
“Marco Anzidei, an INGV researcher, explains in a note issued by said organization that subsidence, that is, the slow downward movement of land due to natural or anthropogenic causes, plays a crucial role in accelerating sea level rise along coasts, triggered by global warming since 1880.”
Antonio Vecchio, researcher at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and the first author of the study, adds that “our analyses show the Mediterranean sea level in some areas is rising almost three times faster than in stable areas, precisely due to subsidence.”
The team of researchers recalculated the IPCC projections until 2150 for 265 areas of the Mediterranean, in light of this evidence. They also included the 51 tide gauges of the international monitoring networks, incorporating data related to sinking in their analysis. The sampled points included areas of Catalonia, Valencian Community, Murcia, Almería and Andalusia, as well as the Balearic Islands.
“Vecchio explains that the results show maximum and minimum differences with respect to the IPCC report, ranging respectively between approximately 109 centimeters more and 77 centimeters less, with an average value that is approximately 8 centimeters higher.”
The data explains that “approximately 38,500 km2 of Mediterranean coasts (of which approximately 19,000 km2 are only in the northern sector of the basin) will soon be more exposed to the risk of marine flooding, with the consequent greater impacts on the environment, human activities, and infrastructure.”
“The study adds that a large part of the coast of Italy, Greece, Spain, and France is sinking, thus accelerating the rise in sea level.”
“The report concludes that we need to take concrete measures to support coastal populations, as they will become increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise and the increased risks associated with it later this century and beyond.”
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