Many of the world's coastlines are retreating further inland in response to rising sea levels and increased storm activity. However, there are some places where the coastline is growing - both naturally and artificially - towards the sea! What does this mean for coastal megacities like Shanghai and more importantly, how can we use science to better understand and predict how coastlines respond to and potentially recover from climate change? This important topic was the focus of the second coastal field methods summer school hosted by the School of Oceanography – Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The South Flank of the Yangtze Delta (southwest of Shanghai) hosts a series of ancient coastlines (stretching back to roughly 6,000 years ago) consisting of long, narrow beach ridges composed of shell deposits and sand layers called cheniers and intervening mudflats with marsh, or swamp vegetation. Chenier deposits in the geological record are recognized as a natural barrier that protects the shoreline from wave erosion, and are therefore important geomorphological features connected to ancient civilizations, modern cities and recorders of a changing climate.

Many modern coastal communities - including Shanghai - have rapidly developed along the coast. Coastal managers in these areas urgently need to implement new strategies towards long-term sustainable coastal management that can be informed – in part – by geological, geophysical, remote sensing, and geochemical field measurements.

During this summer school we focused on a case study along a portion of the chenier plain located near Gangshen. We learned how electromagnetic geophysical methods including; ground penetrating radar (GPR) and time-domain electromagnetics (G-TEM) are used to image the nature and geometry of these ancient features beneath the ground.

This course served as a catalyst of how researchers from different backgrounds can come together to address real world problems that are of high societal relevance in solving ongoing challenges in addressing coastal management issues and resilience in China and globally.

The summer school featured four instructors coming from diverse, but complementary coastal research backgrounds: Associate Professor and organizer Bradley Weymer from SJTU, Qiyue Gu (TA) from SJTU, Professor Daidu Fan from Tongji University, and Professor Yining Chen from the Second Institute of Oceanography. A total of 22 students from 12 different institutions :Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ocean University of China, Shenzhen University, Hainan Tropical Ocean university, Nanjing Normal University, Hainan University, Hohai University, Zhejiang Ocean University, Shanghai Ocean University, Hainan University and East China Normal University , participated in the summer school,! Stay tuned for the next installment of our summer school next year!