Common physical and anthropogenic causes of coastal land loss

Land loss is the term typically used to refer to the conversion of coastal land to open water by natural processes and human activities. The term ''land loss'' includes

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwar ...

. It is a much broader term than coastal erosion because land loss also includes land converted to open water around the edges of estuaries and interior bays and lakes and by subsidence of coastal plain wetlands. The most important causes of land loss in coastal plains are

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...

, inadequate sediment supply to

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc s ...

es and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope mov ...

, and global

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cr ...

. The mixture of processes responsible for most of the land loss will vary according to the specific part of a coastal plain being examined.Morton, R.A., 2003
''An overview of coastal land loss: with emphasis on the Southeastern United States.''
''Open-File report 03-337. US Geological Survey'', Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies, St. Petersburg, Florida. 28 pp.Britsch, L.D. and Kemp III, E.B., 1990. ''Land loss rates: Mississippi River deltaic plain. Technical Report no. WES/TR/GL-90-2''. Geotechnical Lab, Army Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi. The definition of land loss does not include the loss of coastal lands to agricultural use, urbanization, or other development.Barras, J.A., P.E. Bourgeois, and L.R. Handley. 1994. ''Land loss in coastal Louisiana 1956-90.'' ''National Biological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center Open File Report 94-01.'' 4 pp.

Wetland loss

Although seemingly related,

loss, is defined differently than land loss. Commonly, wetland loss is defined as the

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

of vegetated wetlands into either uplands or drained areas, unvegetated wetlands (e.g., mudflats), or (submerged habitats (open water). According to this, and similar definitions, wetland loss includes both land loss and land consumption as components of it. In historic times, both wetland and land loss typically are the result of a varying, often controversial mixture of natural and anthropogenic factors.Boesch, D.F., Josselyn, M.N., Mehta, A.J., Morris, J.T., Nuttle, W.K., Simenstad, C.A. and Swift, D.J., 1994. ''Scientific assessment of coastal wetland loss, restoration and management in Louisiana. '' ''Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 20'', pp.1-103.Chan, A.W. and Zoback, M.D., 2007. ''The role of hydrocarbon production on land subsidence and fault reactivation in the Louisiana coastal zone.'' ''Journal of Coastal Research'', 23(3) pp.771-786. There are other definitions of wetland loss commonly used. For example, some researchers defined wetland loss as "the substantial removal of wetland from its ecologic role under natural conditions."Craig, N.J., Turner, R.E. and Day, J.W., 1979. Land loss in coastal Louisiana (USA). Environmental Management, 3(2), pp.133-144.

Land loss mechanisms

The main causes of land loss are

, inadequate sediment supply,

, and

. Coastal erosion occurs when the rate of sediment deposition is slower than the rate of sediment removal by coastal currents.McManus, John., 2002. "Deltaic responses to changes in river regimes." "Marine Chemistry", 79(3-4) pp. 155-170. The most important cause of decreased rates of sediment deposition is the construction of dams and reservoirs although sediment control and conservation programs can also play a role.Walling, D.E. and Fang, D., 2003. "Recent trends in the suspended sediment loads of the world's rivers." "Global and Planetary Change", 39(1-2), pp. 111-126. Once a dam is constructed, sediment that previously traveled freely in the river is trapped in the reservoir. Decreased sediment loads downstream of the dam prevent sediment from replenishing the delta.Kondolf, G. Mathias, et al., 2014. "Sustainable sediment management in reservoirs and regulated rivers: Experiences from five continents." "Earth's Future", 2(5), pp. 256-280. Subsidence is the compaction of soil resulting in a lower elevation. Subsidence can occur when oil, gas, or groundwater are extracted. These substances hold the land up until they are removed. Compaction due to heavy urban infrastructure also occurs.Schmidt, Charles W., 2015. "Delta Subsidence: An Imminent Threat to Coastal Populations." "Environmental Health Perspectives", 123(8), pp. 204-209. Sea level rise due to climate change is another threat to coastal land.Ericson, Jason P. et al., 2006. "Effective sea-level rise and deltas: Causes of change and human dimension implications." "Global and Planetary Change", 50, pp. 63-82.

Land loss and deltas

Because of a highly variable combination of

, sediment starvation, coastal erosion, wetland deterioration,

, and various human activities, land loss within delta plains is a significant global problem. The large delta plains of the world, including the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. It ...

Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

Mahanadi The Mahanadi is a major river in East Central India. It drains an area of around and has a total length of . Mahanadi is also known for the Hirakud Dam. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and finally merged with Bay ...

, Mangoky, McKenzie,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesNile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

, Shatt el Arab,

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catch ...

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, and

Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than ha ...

deltas, have all suffered significant land loss as the result of either coastal erosion, internal conversion of wetlands to open water, or a combination of both. For the 15 deltas studied by Coleman and others,Coleman, J.M., Huh, O.K. and Braud Jr, D., 2008. ''Wetland loss in world deltas.'' ''Journal of Coastal Research, '' 24(sp1), pp. 1-14. these deltas experienced a total irreversible land loss of of wetlands between the early 1980s and 2002. During this period, the total average land loss for all of these deltas was about per year. In case of the Mississippi River Delta, they found that in a 12-year period, some of wetlands had been converted to new open water at a rate of per year. The factors contributing to land loss in the deltas below are not including direct conversion of delta wetlands into agricultural or urban land, although this is happening concurrently in many of them. * The

Danube Delta The Danube Delta ( ro, Delta Dunării, ; uk, Дельта Дунаю, Deľta Dunaju, ) is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Ro ...

is located in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

where the

River enters into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. The loss of this delta is primarily due to sediment starvation caused by dams along the river. After the construction of the two largest of these dams, the

Iron Gates The Iron Gates ( ro, Porțile de Fier; sr, / or / ; Hungarian: ''Vaskapu-szoros'') is a gorge on the river Danube. It forms part of the boundary between Serbia (to the south) and Romania (north). In the broad sense it encompasses a ...

dams, sediment in the river decreased by 60% - 70%.Panin, Nicolae and Jipa, Dan C., 2002. "Danube River Sediment Input and its Interaction with the North-western Black Sea." "Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science", 54(3), pp. 551-562. * The Ganges Delta forms where the combined waters of the

and

rivers enter the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

. The delta is damaged by sediment starvation due to the construction of many upstream dams. The location is also susceptible to sea level rise with the majority of the delta being below 5 m in elevation.Rahman, M.M. et al., 2020. "Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta, Bangladesh and India: A Transnational Mega-Delta." "Deltas in the Anthropocene", pp. 23-51. * The

Indus River Delta The Indus River Delta ( ur, سندھ ڈیلٹا, sd, سنڌو ٽِڪور), forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea, mostly in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India. The delta ...

forms as the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmi ...

enters the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channe ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The construction of barrages and reservoirs for irrigation has drastically reduced the flow of the Indus and its ability to carry sediment.Memon, Altaf A., 2005. "Devastation of the Indus River Delta." "World Water and Environmental Resources Congress 2005". * The Mahanadi River Delta forms where the

Brahmani Brahmani (Sanskrit: ब्रह्माणी, IAST: Brahmāṇī) or Brahmi (Sanskrit: ब्राह्मी, IAST: Brāhmī), is one of the seven Hindu mother goddesses known as Sapta Matrikas. She is a form of Saraswati and is considered ...

, and Baitarini rivers enter into the

on the east coast of

. Similar to the Ganges River Delta, significant amounts of the Mahanadi Delta are below 5 m in elevation and are threatened by sea level rise. Dams for irrigation and for flood control including the Hirakud Dam contribute to sediment starvation.Hazra, Sugata et al., 2020. "The Mahanadi Delta: A Rapidly Developing Delta in India." "Deltas in the Anthropocene", pp. 53-77. 65% of the coastline is currently facing erosion.Mukhopadhyay, Anirban et al., 2018. "Threats to coastal communities of Mahanadi delta due to imminent consequences of erosion – Present and near future." "Science of the Total Environment", 6337-638, pp. 717-729. * The Mangoky River Delta is formed by the

Mangoky River The Mangoky River is a 564-kilometer-long (350 mi) river in Madagascar in the regions of Atsimo-Andrefana and Anosy. It is formed by the Mananantanana and the Matsiatra. Another important affluent is the Zomandao River. It rises in the ...

draining into the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (french: Canal du Mozambique, mg, Lakandranon'i Mozambika, pt, Canal de Moçambique) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about l ...

off the west coast of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...

Mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

forests face deforestation by coastal fishermen and inland farmers, resulting in an increase in coastal erosion.Rakotomavo, Andriamparany and Fromard, François., 2010. "Dynamics of mangrove forests in the Mangoky River delta, Madagascar,under the influence of natural and human factors." "Forest Ecology and Management", 259(6), pp. 1161-1169. * The Mackenzie River Delta is formed by the Mackenzie River in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

flowing north into the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. Rising sea level combined with melting of

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

near the permafrost table results in land subsidence.Liu, Lin, Zhang, Tingjun and Wahr, John., 2010. "InSAR measurements of surface deformation over permafrost on the North Slope of Alaska." "Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface", 115(F3). * For the Mississippi River Delta see

Mississippi River Delta The Mississippi River Delta is the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, southeastern United States. The river delta is a area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Isl ...

page. * The

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...

is formed by the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mal ...

entering into the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is i ...

on the west coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Dams, erosion, and subsidence due to wetland conversion are the major contributing factors to loss of the delta.Uluocha, N.O. and Okeke, I.C., 2004. "Implications of wetlands degradation for water resources management: Lessons from Nigeria." "GeoJournal", 61, pp. 151-154. * The Nile River Delta is formed by the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

River flowing north through

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and entering into the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. The primary reasons for Nile Delta loss is due to sediment entrapment behind the

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...

dams. Secondary reasons include subsidence, sea level rise, and strong coastal currents.Stanley, Daniel Jean., 1996. "Nile delta: extreme case of sediment entrapment on a delta plain and consequent coastal land loss." "Marine Geology", 129(3-4), pp.189-195. * The Shatt al-Arab River Delta is formed when the

Shatt al-Arab The Shatt al-Arab ( ar, شط العرب, lit=River of the Arabs; fa, اروندرود, Arvand Rud, lit=Swift River) is a river of some in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in ...

River flows into the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...

. The river itself is formed by the joining of the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

rivers. A decrease in freshwater entering the river due to irrigation and thus a decrease in sediment load has increased coastal erosion of the delta. Hydraulic structures and sea level rise are also playing a role in the loss of the delta.Al-Aesawi, Qassim, Al-Nasrawi, Ali K. M. and Jones, Brian G., 2020. "Short-term Geoinformatics Evaluation in the Shatt Al-Arab Delta (Northwestern Arabian/Persian Gulf)." "Journal of Coastal Research", 36(3), pp. 498-505. * The

Volga Delta The Volga Delta is the largest river delta in Europe, and occurs where Europe's largest river system, the Volga River, drains into the Caspian Sea in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast, north-east of the republic of Kalmykia. The delta is located in the ...

is formed when the

River enters into the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central A ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. It has actually gained land with the drop in level of the Caspian Sea. In the last twenty years as the water level has risen again, the delta has still not experienced any loss. As the terms are defined above, the delta has experience wetland loss but not land loss.Li, C. et al., 2009. "Development of the Volga Delta in Response to Caspian Sea-Level Fluctuation during Last 100 Years." "Journal of Coastal Research", 20, pp. 401-414. * The Yellow River Delta is formed as the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

flows into the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour ter ...

. The Yellow River flows through the Loess Plateau and carries large amounts of sediment. Until 1998, the Yellow River Delta was expanding, but it has been decreasing ever since.Gao, Peng et al., 2018. "Land degradation changes in the Yellow River Delta and its response to the streamflow‐sediment fluxes since 1976." "Land Degradation & Development", 29(9), pp. 3212-3220. Many dams have been constructed on the Yellow River and are starving the coastline of sediment.Wang, Houjie and Bi, Naishuang., 2015. The sediment-starved Yellow River Delta as remotely controlled by human activities in the river basin." "American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2015". * The Yukon River Delta is formed when the

and Kuskokwim rivers enter into the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Am ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

. The delta is threatened by sea level rise; an increase of 0.5 m would result in increased erosion due to higher tides. Inactive floodplains where tides and sedimentation rates are not in equilibrium are most at risk.Jorgenson, Torre and Ely, Craig., 2001. "Topography and Flooding of Coastal Ecosystems on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska: Implications for Sea-Level Rise." "Journal of Coastal Research", 17(1), pp. 124-136. * The Zambezi River Delta is formed when the

River enters the

off of the east coast of

. The construction of the

Kariba Dam The Kariba Dam is a double curvature concrete arch dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dam stands tall and long. The dam forms Lake Kariba, which extends for and holds of water. Construction ...

, the

Cahora Bassa Dam The Cahora Bassa Dam is located in Mozambique. It is one of two major dams on the Zambezi river, the other being the Kariba. The dam was finished in December 1974 after much political debate. This dam is used to convert the Zambezi River power i ...

, and dykes have altered natural flooding and sediment deposition. The delta coast is in a state of erosion due to sediment starvation and a slowly rising sea level.Beilfuss, Richard, Dutton, Paul and Moore, Dorn., 2000. "Land Cover and Land Use Change in the Zambezi Delta." "Biodiversity of Zambezi Basin Wetlands", vol 3, ch 2, pp. 31-105.

References

{{Geologic Principles, state=collapsed Geomorphology Coastal erosion Sedimentology

Wetland loss

Land loss mechanisms

Land loss and deltas

See also

References