Is the North Atlantic oscillation affecting the longshore drift rate in South-East England?

• Main Authors: Blanco, B., Brampton, A.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: General; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://eprints.hrwallingford.com/1210/; http://coastaldynamics2017.dk/onewebmedia/126_Blanco_Belen.pdf

Coastal erosion at an artificially maintained headland on the Southeast of England continues to be a problem, one of the main concerns being that the outflanking of the seawall here would increase the chances of erosion or flooding of the hinterland. Over the years, it has been speculated the movements and changes of the offshore banks, the mobile ness on the beach nearby or the defences themselves have been accountable for this erosion. This paper shows the relationship between the longshore drifts in the area, caused by two main nearly-opposite wave directions, and the NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) index, a measure for interannual variability in the atmospheric circulation. The NAO could intuitively be considered to affect the western coastline of the UK, although in principle it would have been less expected in Suffolk. The increased erosion observed in the area since 2013 is linked to two high positive NAO index years following a high negative NAO index in 2013.