Changing Sea Conditions as a Threat to Our Underwater Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Changing sea conditions due to climate change will have an enormous effect on all sorts of processes in seas, oceans and coastal areas. Current patterns will change, as will sedimentation-erosion processes, acidity and salinity. Invasive species will be able to settle in places they could not before. Each of these changes will trigger other processes that can have a negative effect on underwater cultural heritage. Our need to try to mitigate climate change has us looking for green energy, which has led us to build large wind farms in the North Sea. We want to continue living in areas under threat and therefore we imagine building high walls, to keep the water out. This barrier approach affects current, erosion and sedimentation patterns. Consequently, such actions need to be investigated in a multi-disciplinary way to understand the complexities of changes that may result.