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Multidecadal shoreline changes along ca. 7000 km coastline around Denmark were computed for the time interval between 1862 AD and 2005 AD and were connected with a geomorphological coastal classification. The shoreline data set was based on shoreline positions from historical and modern topographic maps. Coastal landforms were identified on a digital terrain model in combination with aerial photographs. Two shoreline-change computation methods were evaluated at a test site, aiming for optimized time efficiency and accuracy of the countrywide application: a Nearest Neighbor search and a cross-shore transect method based on the ArcGIS-based Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). The cross-shore transect method was more robust and performed better in the detection of local extremes in shoreline changes, which was crucial for the scope of the mapping. Countrywide shoreline-change distances and rates were, therefore, computed with the DSAS method. Patterns in coastline dynamics were identified through the connection of shoreline-change rates with the occurrence of coastal landforms. Short-term changes and alterations of shoreline evolution through coastal structures were not resolved in this study. Because of the long time span covered, the relative errors originating from data and method are acceptable. The scope of the mapping was to provide a coastal management tool that allows screening for critical sites with respect to coastal erosion. As the first countrywide quantification of historical shoreline changes around Denmark, the mapping can contribute to enhanced adaptation and mitigation strategies in response to increased risks of erosion and flooding under a changing climate.

The formation of berms and their transformation into beach ridges in a micro-tidal environment is coupled to wave run-up and overtopping during extreme sea levels. A straight-forward comparison between extreme sea levels due to storm-surges and active berm levels is impossible in the semi-enclosed bays along the Baltic Sea. Quite often, the maximum water levels do not coincide with the maximum intensity of the wave driven processes because of seiches in the Baltic. In this paper, we look into the joined distribution of extreme water levels and high-energetic wave conditions at Feddet, a sandy prograding spit on the south-eastern Baltic shores of Zealand, Denmark. The modern, sandy beach at this location consists of a beachface with a shallow incipient berm, a mature berm, and a dune-covered beach ridge. It borders a beach-ridge plain to the west, where more than 20 N–S oriented beach ridges and swales are present. Measured water-level data from 1991 to 2012 and topographical observations, carried out during fair weather period and during a storm event, provided the basis for a conceptual model exhibiting berm formation and transformation into the local beach-ridge system. The character of extreme sea level events is identified using thirty-three well described extreme events throughout a period of 15 years. Analysis of the meteorological conditions during these events revealed that berm formation only occurred during 20% of all extreme events when onshore winds, high-energy wave action and elevated water coincided. These berm-forming events had a mean return period of once every three years. The average age between successive beach ridges on the beach-ridge plain was about 180 years, which means that the transformation of a berm into a single beach ridge is the result of a large number of storm episodes with high-energy waves and extreme water levels

A detailed digital elevation model (DEM) of an intertidal sand flat in the Knudedyb tidal inlet in the Danish Wadden Sea, derived from high-resolution Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data, reveals a large elongated bedform field with complex bedform morphologies and drainage channel networks. This indicates distinct second-order sand transport pathways oblique to the main tidal transport pathways. A conceptual model for the development of the bedforms and channels is presented, which comprises hypotheses of the hydrodynamic forcing of the different second-order sand transport pathways. During flood tide, sand is transported along ESE-oriented pathways across the intertidal flat towards the inner tidal basin. During the late stages of ebb tide, sand is transported in drainage channels (WSWoriented) from the intertidal flat towards the inlet channel. During storm events with winds from SW, wave-generated currents transport sand along a NE-oriented transport pathway from the inlet channel towards the intertidal flat.

Onshore migration and subsequent destruction of an intertidal slip-face bar was documented during a 1-day field experiment at Skallingen, Denmark, in August 2010. The experiment coincided with an unusual summer storm that was associated with a 40–50 cm storm surge and offshore waves that were significantly larger than the 5% annual exceedance wave height at the site. High-resolution measurements of morphological change were obtained at a spatial scale of 2 m and a temporal scale of 15 minutes and these were complemented by measurements of inshore waves, longshore currents and wave runup. The measurements demonstrated an example of positive morphodynamic feedback. Once the bar crest elevation started to decrease because of wave overtopping and sediment transport into the runnel on the rising tide, the bar crest lowered and overwash frequency increased, leading to enhanced crest erosion, even under conditions of constant or slowly falling tide conditions. Due to the relatively small spatial scale of slip-face bar systems and the occurrence of positive feedback, they can be destroyed over a single tidal cycle.

Changes in fluvial channel patterns on deltas have a significant impact on the coastal morphology along its fringes. Lateral channel migration can locally cause cliff erosion and introduce an extra sediment source in the local budget of an active delta plain. Stabilization of channels or even channel lobe switching reduce the fluvial impact on the delta and introduce the formation of beach ridges and spits along the (former) delta edge. These accumulative features are formed in the ice-free summer periods and fed by alongshore sediment input from adjacent shores due to wave-driven alongshore currents, and by the reworking of the sediments on the delta plain by wave-driven cross-shore processes.

Accretion on a natural backbarrier salt marsh was modeled as a function of high tide level, initial salt marsh level and distance to the source. Calibration of the model was based on up to ca 80 year old marker horizons, supplemented by 210Pb/137Cs datings and subsequent measurements of clay thickness. Autocompaction was incorporated in the model, and shown to play a major role for the translation of accretion rates measured as length per unit time to accumulation rates measured as mass per area per unit time. This is important, even for shallow salt marsh deposits for which it is demonstrated that mass depth down core can be directly related to the bulk dry density of the surface layer by means of a logarithmic function. The results allow for an evaluation of the use of marker horizons in the topmost layers and show that it is important to know the level of the marker in relation to the salt marsh base. In general, deeper located markers will indicate successively smaller accretion rates with the same sediment input. Thus, stability analysis made on the basis of newly established marker horizons will be biased and indicate salt marsh stabilities far above the correct level. Running the model with a constant sea level revealed that balance between the inner and the outer salt marsh deposition can not be achieved within a reasonable time scale. Likewise it is shown that only one specific sea level rise provides equilibrium for a given location on the salt marsh. With a higher sea level rise, the marsh at the specific location will eventually drown, whereas - with a sea level rise below this level – it will grow towards the top of the rising tidal frame. The short term variation of salt marsh accretion was found to correlate well with variations in the North Atlantic Oscillation - the NAO winter index. Comparisons between the geomorphological development of wind tide affected salt marshes, like those pres

One of the most prominent polynyas in Northeast Greenland, already noted by the early expeditions in the area, is located around Shannon Ø and Pendulum Øer between 75° and 74°N in the transition zone between the fast ice and pack ice. This study names the polynya the ‘Sirius Water Polynya’, and examines its spatial and temporal dynamics by analysis of recent satellite imagery, modelled meteorological data and historical data covering the last decade. The dominating mechanisms to form and sustain the polynya are inferred and the persistence and inter-annual variability of the phenomenon are estimated. The polynya formation is predominantly governed by mechanical forcing caused by northerly gales, and it is classified as a wind-driven shelf water polynya. A marked seasonal difference in the surface wind field, together with the obvious seasonal cycle in insolation, creates distinct winter and summer regimes in the seasonal evolution of the polynya. During the winter regime, both the size of and the ice cover within the polynya varies significantly on a temporal and spatial scale. Intermittent wind-driven openings of the polynya alternate with periods of increasing ice cover. Some of the most persistent areas of open water in the polynya coincide with locations where significant concentrations of spring and summer settlements from the Thule Inuit culture (AD 1400-1850) are observed, indicating a connection between the presence of the polynya and the Thule Inuit living in the area in prehistoric times

Inuit have travelled to and settled in the coastal landscapes of Northeast Greenland for several longer periods during the latest ca. 4500 years. Most recently the Thule culture Inuit lived in the region from around 1400 until 1850 AD. The access to partly and periodically ice covered near coastal waters has been crucial to the primarily marine based subsistence strategy of the Thule Inuit culture, and their settlements are therefore found immediately at the coast. Changing geological and geomorphologic settings strongly influence the coastal morphodynamics, and only specific locations offer stable and protected conditions needed for proper winter settlements. The comprehensive study of coastal environments and Thule culture winter settlements in the Young Sound region show an accumulation of winter settlements, nearly all located either in protected pocket beaches or on stable basalt capes. The Thule culture abandoned Northeast Greenland about 1850 AD, and apart from settlements on basalt capes, most of the winter settlement sites in pocket beach areas have been affected by erosion of local character and in some cases also affected by increasing wave erosion during recent periods of less ice in near coastal waters.

Long-term, net offshore bar migration is a common occurrence on many multiple-barred beaches. The first stage of the process involves the generation of a longshore bar close to the shoreline that oscillates about a mean position for some time, followed by a stage of net offshore migration across the upper shoreface, and finally a stage of decaying bar form through loss of sediment volume at the outer boundary of the upper shoreface. The phenomenon has been previously documented in the Netherlands, the USA, the Canadian Great Lakes, and in New Zealand, but our present understanding of the morphodynamic processes and sediment transport pathways involved in bar decay is limited. In this paper, long-term, net offshore bar migration is investigated at Vejers Beach, located on the North Sea coast of Denmark where offshore bar migration rates are of the order of 45–55 m a-1. A wave height transformation model confirmed that the decay of the outer bar results in increased wave heights and undertow speeds at the more landward bar potentially causing this bar to speed up its offshore migration. The causes for outer bar decay were investigated through field measurements of sediment transport at the decaying bar and at a position further seaward on the lower shoreface. The measurements showed that a cross-shore transport convergence exists between the bar and the lower shoreface and that the loss of sediment involved in bar decay is associated with a longshore directed transport by non-surf zone processes. At Vejers, and possibly elsewhere, the net offshore migration of bars and the subsequent loss of sand during bar decay is an important part of the beach and shoreface sediment budget.

Long term observations of clay thicknesses from 1949 to 2007 and measurements of the bulk dry density of salt marsh on the backbarrier of Skallingen (west Denmark) formed the basis of constructing a space distributed model of salt marsh deposition. The deposition potential (an empirical constant, ß) was measured at 32 locations across the studied salt marsh platform. It was found to correlate with two independent variables: (1) distance to marsh edge and (2) distance to creeks of 2nd or higher order. They explained in combination 71% of the variation. The derived algorithms for estimating the salt marsh deposition made it possible to tune in a model in a 4 by 4 m grid covering the studied salt marsh area of app 3 km2. This was used to describe the general pattern of deposition on the salt marsh platform. Running the model with a constant sea level revealed that balance between the inner and the outer salt marsh deposition cannot be achieved within a time scale of 1000s of years. Modeling salt marsh sedimentation under rising sea level scenarios revealed that only one specific sea level rise provides equilibrium for a given location. With a higher sea level rise, the marsh at the specific location will eventually drown, whereas it – with a sea level rise below this level – will grow towards the top of the rising tidal frame. Short term scenarios (100 years) showed that the Skallingen salt marsh will survive a sea level rise of 4 mm yr- 1 and become unstable in the inner part with a sea level rise of 6 mm yr- 1.