Changing sea level at sinking coasts - competition between climate change and geological processes

Changes of coastlines have economic and social impact on the human population concentrated in coastal areas. The investigation of coastal change processes becomes important particularly at sinking-retreating-coast for future planning, and the derivation of scenarios must be based on the understanding of the driving processes. It is well known that coastal change is a complex result of an interaction of climate driven eustatic sea level change and vertical crustal movements. An index is given that allows to distinguish between coasts controlled by glacio-isostatic processes and those determined by the climatic forces of coastal morphogenesis. A simple model allows reconstructions of the palaeo-geographic history of sinking coasts. Prognostic scenarios of coastal change are possible by applying of parameterized vertical crustal movement data and sea level change data derived from climate modeling. These data have to be superimposed with the influence of storm events. The coupling of processes on different time scales between hours and millennia are questions under investigation.