Sea coasts of the Russian Arctic: types and chronology of human-induced changes

Аnthropogenic changes in the coastal zone of the Russian Arctic seas are overviewed for the first time. Maps of the anthropogenic transformation of relief and relief-forming processes (scale 1:15 000 000) and corresponding databases have been compiled using the interpreted data from satellite images and literature sources. Six stages of the coast development have been identified, i.e. Pre-revolutionary (including 2 sub-stages: before the 18th century and from the 18th century till 1918), Komseveroput’ (1919–1932), Glavsevmorput’ (1933–1963), Departmental (1964–1991), Changes of economic structure (1992–1998) and Neocapitalist (1999 – present) with pre-sanctional (1999–2014) and sanctional (after 2014) substages. For each of them specific types of the anthropogenic impact on the coastal zone were determined. During all stages, except that of 1992–1998, the load on the coasts increased, and the anthropogenic changes accumulated. After deloading the coasts relaxation occurred just in places without engineering structures in the coastal zone. However, the anthropogenic changes of the Russian Arctic coasts are still of local character. We identified 89 sites of anthropogenic impact with a total length of about 1% of the total coastline of the Russian Arctic seas. At 56% of them Transformation of relief and relief-forming processes result from the construction of industrial, military and transport facilities in the coastal zone (56%), and operation of facilities located outside (44%). Changes of the coastal relief are insignificant and local for 62% of the sites; 20% of the sites undergo the increasing denudation relief-forming processes (coastal, cryogenic, slope, and aeolian) at a distance of up to 1 km from the source of impact. Transformation of relief-forming processes caused rapid coastal retreat and/or flooding of coastal areas for 18% of the sites; the changes spread to 1–12 km from the source of impact. The most profound changes in the coastal zone result from the construction of port facilities and pipeline crossings; accumulative (beach and lagoon) and thermoabrasion coasts are particularly vulnerable to human impact.

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