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[1] The tidal regime in the Bohai Sea, China, is investigated using observations and an established numerical tidal model. The area has recently experienced rapid coastline changes due to natural developments of the Yellow River delta and large-scale anthropogenic land reclamation. These morphological changes are not reflected in most global bathymetric databases and are thus rarely incorporated into investigations of the Bohai Sea. It is shown that there have indeed been significant changes in the tidal regime in the Bohai Sea over the last 35 years, with M 2 amplitudes changing up to 20 cm in some parts. The model captures some of these changes when the appropriate bathymetries are used. Furthermore, the simulations show that the tides in the Bohai Sea have become more sensitive to future sea level rise and the way in which it is implemented in the model (i.e., whether or not flood defenses are included). These sensitivity changes are due to the recent coastal developments.Citation: Pelling, H. E., K. Uehara, and J. A. M. Green (2013), The impact of rapid coastline changes and sea level rise on the tides in

An established numerical tidal model has been used to investigate the impact of various sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios, as well as SLR in combination with large-scale tidal power plants on European shelf tidal dynamics. Even moderate and realistic levels of future SLR are shown to have significant impacts on the tidal dynamics of the area. These changes are further enhanced when SLR and tidal power plants are considered in combination, resulting in changes to tidal amplitudes, currents and associated tidal dissipation and bed shear stresses. Sea-level rise is the dominant influence on any far-field impacts, whereas tidal power plants are shown to have the prevailing influence over any changes close to the point of energy extraction. The spatial extent of the impacts of energy extraction is shown to be affected by the sea level when more than one tidal power plant in the Irish Sea was considered. Different ways to implement SLR in the model are also discussed and shown to be of great significance for the response of the tides.

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