Tides influence a wide range of ocean and Earth system processes, from the coasts to the deep ocean. Together with storm surges, they play a central role in driving coastal flooding. Tides provide the mechanical energy that fuels ocean mixing and sustains large-scale circulation, affecting marine biogeochemistry, ecosystems, and interacting with ice sheet and sea ice dynamics.
Tides and storm surges act as key drivers of coastal processes, exerting a combined influence on coastal hazards such as flooding, morphological changes, pollution, and infrastructure resilience. The behaviour and interaction of tides and storm surges, in combination with other coastal processes, represents an active research field that will be discussed in this session.
Both tides and storm surge patterns exhibit short and long-term temporal variability across different spatial scales and are modified by sea-level rise, climate change, sea ice, and human activities such as dredging and estuarine modifications. These changes have implications for coastal flooding, tidal energy generation, ocean stratification, mixing and large-scale ocean circulation. Further back in geological time, changes in continental configuration and sea level profoundly altered tidal dynamics, with potentially far-reaching effects on ocean circulation, mixing and evolutionary processes.
Observations (in-situ measurements and remote sensing), models (numerical and data-driven) and geological reconstructions are important tools in understanding how tides and storm surges vary across space and time. The aim of this session is to share innovative approaches, technical advancements in observation and modelling techniques, and recent improvements in understanding of these tide- and surge-driven processes and their implications for coastal, ocean and Earth system processes. Submissions are encouraged both from regional and global-scale studies on all aspects of tides and surges in the past, present and future, including those from estuaries, rivers, lakes, and even other planetary bodies.