Why is sea level rising and how is Tasmania affected?

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Chris Sharples

Summary of Answer

Chris Sharples (University of Tasmania) provides insights on the topic of ‘Why is sea level rising and how is Tasmania affected?’.

This footage was shot at live public forums for the Curious Climate Tasmania project held across Tasmania in August 2019 as part of Australian National Science Week. Curious Climate was initiated by a group of scientists & journalists that wanted to know what the Tasmanian public were curious about in terms of climate change. This series of presentations cover the most popular questions submitted by the Tasmanian public, in response to a call out for questions from ABC Radio, and aim to bridge the gap between experts and audiences with credible, relevant information about climate change.

This project was delivered in partnership with the Centre for Marine Socioecology, ABC Radio Hobart, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, CSIRO and Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. Funding was provided by National Science Week and the Tasmanian Government, through the Tasmanian Climate Change Office.

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About the Author

Chris Sharples

Affiliations:

Spatial Science Group, Discipline of Geography and Spatial Sciences, School of Technology, Environments and Design, University of Tasmania

Research Area:

Research Area: Geology, coastal geomorphology (focus on coastal landform processes, coastal erosion and physical responses to sea-level rise)

Why I do the research I do:

Why I do it: Despite a wealth of evidence that sea-level rise causes coastal erosion and recession, there has been very little research asking whether the erosion we see today is related to sea-level rise or to other causes, and when we can expect sea-level rise to become the dominant driver of coastal landform processes (as is expected). This obvious gap in existing knowledge – and the dearth of research effort on this question, has attracted me as an obvious knowledge gap needing to be investigated.

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