The Impacts of Climate Change on the Coastal and Marine Environment and Society

Watch live on Sunday 12 March, 2003 on CBC TV Channel 8 as representatives from the CZMU, Fisheries Division and The Barbados Meteorological Services discuss the topic of climate change and its impact on our lives and livelihoods. This discussion is just one of the activities ocurring under the Coastal Hazards and Earthquake Smart Month (March 1 - 31).

Date:

Sunday, March 12, 2023 - 19:00

Glossary of Terms

Photomosaic

An assemblage of photographs, each of which shows part of a region, put together in such a way that each point in the region appears once and only once in the assemblage, and scale variation is minimised.

Photic Zone

The zone extending downward from the ocean surface within which the light is sufficient to sustain photosynthesis. The depth of this layer varies with water clarity, time of year and cloud clover, but is about 100m in the open ocean.

It may be considered the depth to which all light is filtered out except for about one percent and may be calculated as about two and a half-times the depth of a secchi disk reading.

Overwash

Transport of the sediment landward of the active beach by coastal flooding during a tsunami, hurricane, or other event with extreme waves.

The part of the uprush that runs over the crest of a berm of a structure and does not flow directly back to the ocean or lake.

The effects of waves overtopping a coastal defence, often carrying sediment landwards which is then lost to the beach system.

Seawall

A structure, often concrete or stone, built along a portion of a coast to prevent erosion and other damage by wave action. Often it retains earth against its shoreward face.

A structure separating land and water areas to alleviate the risk of flooding by the sea. Generally shore-parallel, although some reclamation seawalls may include lenghts that are nromal or oblique to the (original) shoreline.
A vertical or near-vertical type of shoreline armouring characterised by a smooth surface.

Rock

An aggregate of one or more minerals; or a body of undifferentiated mineral matter. The three classes of rocks are: (a) igneous - crystalline rocks formed from molten material (e.g. granite and basalt); (b) sedimentary - resulting from the consolidation of loose sediment that has accumulated in layers (e.g. sandstone, shale and limestone); (c) metamorphic - formed from pre-exisiting rock as a result of burial, heat and pressure.

Washover

Sediment deposited inland of a beach by over wash processes. Water depth - distance between the seabed and the still water level.

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The Impacts of Climate Change on the Coastal and Marine Environment and Society