Podcast of a presentation by Dr Arthur Webb, Manager – Ocean & Islands Programme, (Coastal Processes Adviser), SOPAC Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission
Arthur’s presentation, given in a lecture at Victoria University earlier today, provides some background to a recent paper The dynamic response of reef islands to sea-level rise: Evidence from multi-decadal analysis of island change in the Central Pacific published this year in Global & Planetary Change.
This work was underpinned by the SOPAC, Pacific Regional Island Shoreline Monitoring System (PRISMS) which has been established to provide clear empirical facts to decision makers regarding shoreline response to stress such as sea level rise. Currently atolls are the primary target since these shores are widely seen as the most fragile in the region and atoll shoreline dynamics are not complicated by terrigenous (land derived by rivers) sediment processes.
Click on the player below to listen to the audio
[audio:https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/wp-content/upload/2010/09/sea-level-pacific.mp3]