Feature/Implications of climate change for hazardous ground conditions in the UK

摘要

Many geohazards effect the United Kingdom, both directly and indirectly. As climate might change in the future, it may affect the geohazards that we, and our descendents, will have to face as a consequence of those changes. It looks as though the most important geohazard consequences of climate change will be more landslides but not necessarily uniformly across the country, faster coastal erosion, more subsidence and more floods. Since it is unlikely that the climate could be fixed at an optimum state, assuming an optimum state could be agreed internationally, the best response to these hazards will remain as it has in the past. A thorough understanding of the hazard causing processes will enable the areas prone to geohazards to be predicted for a given climatic regime. Their impact may be eliminated or mitigated by avoidance or engineered structural design, and controlled through the planning process. The UK has always been affected by both geohazards and a changing climate and whatever climate change occurs in the future the same geohazards will be present to a greater or lesser degree. It is important that the drivers of climatic change and the causative factors that control geohazards continue to be studied because such knowledge will enable us to better predict how geohazards are likely to be affected and improve the measures needed to control and mitigate the effects.