4-D Topography Evolution in Europe: Uplift, Subsidence and Sea level Change
An ESF EUROCORES Programme
Brief decription (full details can be obtained from the ESF EUROCORES TOPO-EUROPE website)
The topography of the continents and their margins is at the interface of deep Earth, surface and atmospheric processes. Topography influences society, not only as a result of slow landscape changes but also in terms of how it impacts on geohazards and the environment. When sea-, lake- or ground-water levels rise or land subsides, the risk of flooding increases, directly affecting the sustainability of local ecosystems and human habitats. On the other hand, declining water levels and uplifting land may lead to higher risks of erosion and desertification. Although natural processes and human activities create geohazards and environmental changes, the relative contribution of the respective components remains poorly understood. That topography influences climate has been known since the beginning of civilization, but only recently have we been able to model its effects in regions where good (paleo-)topographic and climatologic data are available. The present state and behaviour of the shallow Earth System is a consequence of processes operating over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. These include the long-term effects of tectonic uplift, subsidence, climate variations and the development of river systems, the residual effects of the ice ages on crustal movement, natural climate and environmental changes over the past millennia up to the present, and the powerful anthropogenic impacts of the last century. If we are to understand the present state of the Earth System, to predict its future and to engineer our use of it, this spectrum of processes, operating concurrently but on different scales, needs to be better understood. The challenge to the Geosciences is to describe the state of the system, to monitor its changes, to forecast its evolution and, in collaboration with others, to evaluate modes of its sustainable use by human society.
