Heritage management bodies and scientists are only just beginning to develop the tools and quantitative methods to monitor the risks posed to such sites through techniques such as coastal zone assessment and aerial and ground surveys, but these are rarely combined and have never been applied to a complete body of data for a singular dataset. Rarely considered too are the integrated geoscience approaches that can consider elements such as the rates of historic loss utilising GIS mapping tools that can quantify erosion and shoreline displacement. In this PhD the geological substrate (lithologies of cliffs and, bedding and jointing density and orientation, etc) will be mapped alongside erosion modelling using Historic Erosion plugins for SRI ArcGIS 10.5.1. and Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) techniques (Himmelstoss et al. 2018). In addition LiDAR and UAV survey will map the sites over repeated visits to monitor rates of loss. Geological assessment and repeated MBES bathymetric surveys around promontories to understand the costal change and seabed morphological evolution and processes will also be undertaken. Ground-testing of sites using traditional archaeological approaches such as excavation and geophysical survey will also assess levels of survival of these sites vis-à-vis past climate change and erosion events. The PhD will fully catalogue for the first time a heritage resource of over 200 sites, map past coastal change at these, produce condition assessments including their geologic susceptibility to erosion and will develop future predictive models for the sites most under threat from future climate change. At a broad level the PhD will also provide quantification of the resource and overall models for future management and mitigation, but in a series of case studies will also quantify loss and threat at the local level providing a unique resource for understanding the threats posed to heritage resources due to climate change.
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