Subsidence in the Dutch Wadden Sea

Subsidence in the Dutch Wadden Sea

Ground surface dynamics is one of the processes influencing the future of the Wadden Sea area. Vertical land movement, both subsidence and heave, is a direct contributor to changes in the relative sea level. It is defined as the change of height of the Earth's surface with respect to a vertical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geologie en mijnbouw Vol. 97; no. 3; pp. 129 - 181
Main Authors: Fokker, Peter.A., van Leijen, Freek.J., Orlic, Bogdan, van der Marel, Hans, Hanssen, Ramon.F.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01-09-2018
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Benchmarks
Data assimilation
Datum (elevation)
Dynamics
Earth
Earth surface
Earthquakes
Height
Land subsidence
Natural gas
Original Article
Plate tectonics
Quality
Sea level
Sea level changes
Standard deviation
Stratigraphy
Subsidence
Surface dynamics
Time dependence
Vertical motion
Wadden Sea
Netherlands
North Sea
subsidence
remote sensing
inversion
Wadden Sea
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Summary:Ground surface dynamics is one of the processes influencing the future of the Wadden Sea area. Vertical land movement, both subsidence and heave, is a direct contributor to changes in the relative sea level. It is defined as the change of height of the Earth's surface with respect to a vertical datum. In the Netherlands, the Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP) is the official height datum, but its realisation via reference benchmarks is not time-dependent. Consequently, NAP benchmarks are not optimal for monitoring physical processes such as land subsidence. However, surface subsidence can be regarded as a differential signal: the vertical motion of one location relative to the vertical motion of another location. In this case, the actual geodetic height datum is superfluous. In the present paper, we highlight the processes that cause subsidence, with specific focus on the Wadden Sea area. The focus will be toward anthropogenic causes of subsidence, and how to understand them; how to measure and monitor and use these measurements for better characterisation and forecasting; with some details on the activities in the Wadden Sea that are relevant in this respect. This naturally leads to the identification of knowledge gaps and to the formulation of notions for future research.
ISSN:0016-7746
1573-9708
DOI:10.1017/njg.2018.9