Land subsidence amplifies relative sea-level rise by increasing the risk of flooding in low-lying coastal zones. In a new paper led by the French Geological Survey and with Tyndall Centre involvement, we for the first time assess current coastal land subsidence for Europe using data from the new Copernicus European Ground Motion Service.
Their results suggest that nearly half of the low-lying coastal areas in Europe is subsiding at a rate faster than 1 mm a yr, or 10 cm/century, on average. Coastal subsidence hotspots include the Netherlands and the North Italian Coastal Plain.
Subsidence is higher on average in coastal areas with more people, including urban centres as well as around critical infrastructure. It raises a concern that coastal subsidence, and therefore relative sea-level rise tends to be underestimated around Europe, and presumably in many other regions worldwide.
The study demonstrates that emerging continental-scale land motion services such as the European Ground Motion Service are useful to better characterize the coastal subsidence and anticipate coastal risks and adaptation accordingly, in supporting the development of improved coastal climate services.
Thiéblemont, R., Le Cozannet, G., Nicholls, R. J., Rohmer, J., Wöppelmann, G., Raucoules, D., et al. (2024). Assessing current coastal subsidence at continental scale: Insights from Europe using the European Ground Motion Service. Earth’s Future, 12
