Kustprocesser i Arktis – med en fallstudie på Prins Karls Forland, Svalbard

Sammanfattning: The Arctic is facing great changes due to current climate changes, where the Arctic coasts are especially vulnerable. Changes in temperature, mean sea level, storms and sea ice extent are some of the factors that shape how the coasts and beaches can be changed. The purpose of this study is firstly to examine what changes the Arctic coasts are experiencing today and whether they can be correlated to climate change or extreme weather conditions. Thereafter a photography based case study has been done on a beach on the western coast of Prins Karls Forland, Svalbard, to see whether the geomorphology of the beach changes during May – July 2019 and to describe the sediment present on the beach. Photos from each hour from the 9th of May to the 12th of July has been collected by The IK Foundations field station Martin’s Eye, overlooking the beach in a northerly direction from the south end. Each of the photos has been studied and three of them have been selected for further analysis where the borders for ice, foreshore and backshore were defined and compared to each other. The field station has collected meteorological data where temperature, wind speed, wind direction and precipitation rate between the 12th of May and the 12th of July could be analysed and analysis of two sediment samples has been done. Results show that the Arctic is going through faster rates of change in the last couple of years, especially considering erosion rates. The coasts are more sensitive during the summer when there is no coverage from the ice against the coastal processes that occur. On the beach at Prins Karls Forland, no change is detected on the back border of the backshore, although a small change can be seen in the south end of the beach at the border between foreshore and backshore. On that border, ice is acting as a constricting factor during half of the time for the studied period and the change occurs first when all ice is melted. The change indicates an erosion of the south end of the beach. The sediments on the shore are classified as gravelly fine sand and gravelly coarse sand.