Rocky shores occupy about 80% of the world’s coastline. Rock coasts are non-linear, threshold dominated erosional landscapes which increasing numbers of geomorphologists and coastal scientists are turning their attention to. These systems are inherently erosional, and many gaps remain in understanding the nature and controls on erosion, whether these features are contemporary or inherited from previous sea level stands and how resilient they are to changes in storminess. This erosion also yields large boulders and blocks which sedimentologists often use as markers of past tsunamis and storm events. Understanding how these landscapes erode, over what timescales and wave energies, is crucial for understanding their evolution but also to inform palaeostorm reconstructions. Current research efforts on rock coasts are very diverse in terms of methodologies (in-situ monitoring, field campaigns, laboratory experiments, analytical analysis and numerical and physical modelling), time-scales (from daily measurements during storms to changes over millennia), spatial scales (from microns to several kilometres) and geological settings (from rapidly-eroding soft cliffs to hard, resistant coasts). Recent studies also range from very conceptual studies to those addressing real-world problems.
Integrating local individual geomorphic events to understand changes at geomorphologically significant space and timescales (decadal to millennial) remains an outstanding challenge across geomorphology. We welcome contributions illustrating this wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches to field, laboratory and modelling studies of rock coasts. We encourage topics from localized in time and/or space up to the geological evolution of rocky coasts, using techniques such as cosmogenic nuclides or landform evolution models.
The session aims to promoting lively scientific discussions by bringing together world leading process and evolutionary scale geomorphologists to discuss a common landscape – rocky coasts. As there are growing numbers of early career researchers in rock coast geomorphology science, this session will provide an important networking event, and events will be planned to extend social interaction beyond the session itself. We will also have a best student poster award within the session to support early career researcher development.

This session welcomes contributions illustrating these wide array of approaches. We encourage topics from localized in time and/or space up to geological evolution of rocky coasts. It aims at promoting scientific discussions as well as networking. We would like to plan a social event and electing the best student poster.