RECENT CHANGES OF THE COASTLINE AND NEARSHORE ZONE, VEJRO ISLAND, DENMARK - POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES FOR FUTURE-DEVELOPMENT

This case study deals with coastal changes and their causal relationsh ips. The study site is the island Vejro situated in the Kattegat, the gateway between the North Sea and the Baltic. The observation period i s 1954 to present. The small island presents different kinds of coasta l types: bluffs fronted by narrow beaches, a low relief foreland of be ach ridges, and a partly submarine, sandy and gravelly spit. In recent decades erosion has dominated on most of the coastal sections. The er osion is ascribed to natural as well as man-induced processes. These r esults from: An increase of the wind energy, higher frequency of stron g winds, rise of the mean sea level, larger variability of the sea lev el, and dredging of raw materials from the outer spit area. A predicti on of future coastal development is hampered, among others, by a break in coherence between sunspot activity and wind energy, coinciding wit h enhanced rise of sea level since mid 1970's.