Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The coastal areas, located within sinking blocks of the Earth's crust, such as the
Russian part of the southeastern Baltic (Kaliningrad Region), suffer the most from
these changes. As a result, serious damage has been done to the beaches of the
Sambian Peninsula with its famous resort areas. Furthermore, there is a real risk
of Curonian Spit breakthrough during extreme storm events. This could cause the
damage and vanishing of the unique landscapes of the Curonian Spit National Park
and the freshwater environment of the Curonian Lagoon.
The intensity increase of exogenic geological processes and their hazardous
impacts on the coastal zones of the Russian sector of the Baltic Sea are caused by
a combination of several natural and anthropogenic factors. The main natural one
is the increase of the frequency of disastrous storm events, which are according to
several authors a possible consequence of global climate change and the resulting
changes of regional hydrometeorological conditions. Our studies clearly show that
the natural development trends of the Russian coastal zones are severely intensi-
fied by anthropogenic activities. Along significant parts of the Russian Baltic Sea
coastal zone, especially in the Kaliningrad Region, the process of beach degrada-
tion is already irreversible. The recovery of natural coastal landscape needs strong
human efforts for an environmentally friendly future development of the coasts.
The present level of knowledge about the general scheme of the coastal zone
processes and especially the combination of different factors controlling hazard
potentials is still insufficient. Therefore, active response from government author-
ities and research activities should be expanded. Special mapping of potential
hazards should be started as soon as possible and a monitoring system should be
in place to lead remediation and preventive action.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank their colleagues Elena Nesterova, Yury Kropatchev,
and Svyatoslav Manuilov for their contribution to their studies. The authors gratefully thank Vasily
Bukanov, Dmitry Kurennoy, and Igor Lysanskiy as well as the captain and the crew of RV “Risk”
for their great contribution to the field work. The authors are thankful for critical comments
and suggestion from R.O. Niedermeyer (Güstrow/Greifswald) and from an anonymous reviewer.
Furthermore, the authors would like to thank Yulia Guseva and Ricardo Olea (Washington), who
have kindly revised the language of the chapter.
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