Author(s): Alfred Fuhrboter; Hans H. Dette
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: For 10 selected tide gauges along the German North Sea coast for periods back to 1855 the time series of the annual mean high water (MHW), the mean low water (MLW), and the mean tidal range (MTR) have been analyzed. As main result it can be stated that since about 1950 the MHW rise has accelerated. Moreover since this date anomalies in the longterm behaviour of MHW and MLW which is quite different from the earlier trend, has been detected. MHW shows an accelerating rise where-as MLW displays a falling tendency. Due to this occurence the tidal ranges were increased in the order of approx. 10 percent which besides continuous MHW rise means high wave energy impacts on the tidal flats (wadden sea), increased velo-cities in tidal channels due to increased tidal volume and consequently accele-rated erosion processes. The reason for this phenomenon in the North Sea as a random sea may be a non-linear reflection of the tidal wave arising from an in-creasing eustatic sea level rise of the world oceans.
Year: 1989