Expert geomorphological analysis
Summary of key issues:
|Description||Expert Geomorphological Analysis (EGA) integrates information from various sources to provide a broad-scale and long-term perspective on future change. The approach is reliant upon historical data and an expert understanding of geomorphological interpretation.|
|Temporal applicability||EGA can be applied to many different time-scales: |
|Spatial applicability||Estuary wide.|
|Links with other tools||Links to modelling tools and numerical analysis, for example, can be used with estuary translation, morphological bed modelling, regime analysis and sediment transport data.|
|Data sources||Historical archives, field data and management information.|
|Necessary software tools / skills||Expertise in estuarine geomorphology.|
|Typical analyses||Conceptual models of estuarine systems and predictions of future change.|
|Limitations||Reliant on expertise and experience of person developing the analysis; data availability and quality.|
|Example applications||Poole Harbour.|
Expert geomorphological analysis seeks to integrate information from numerous sources to provide a broad-scale and long-term perspective on past and potential future change. The approach draws heavily on analysis of historic information, an understanding of landform evolution, and relative importance of the various process-form interactions. In effect, it is a basis for synthesising, or interpreting, the outputs from the various data analysis methods, within a framework guided by our present understanding of geomorphological behaviour.
As yet there are no well-defined methods, or protocols, to guide this type of analysis. The success of the method is very dependent on the extent and quality of the available data and the expertise of those undertaking the analysis. It is therefore important to carefully document the interpretation that is being made, typically identifying the data sources or results that are being relied on and then set out the conclusions that follow. This should rely on accepted behavioural models of geomorphological evolution. An important aspect of the analysis is to consider any information or data that does not support the proposed model, and the inclusion of any data should be explained. This may involve some discussion of the various uncertainties, and possibly some assessment of the likelihood of a number of different outcomes. An example of the use of this approach is given in Paper 15 of the EMPHASYS guide - PDF 3.97MB (EMPHASYS Consortium, 2000) (Pye and Van der Wal, 2000).