Cliffed coasts of new zealand: Perspectives and future directions

Abstract

About one‐quarter of New Zealand’s shoreline is composed of cliffs. In some areas erosion rates are sufficiently rapid to be of concern to planners, whereas other cliffs have eroded imperceptibly slowly over human timescales. This paper reviews work conducted on New Zealand’s cliffed coasts, from the pioneering studies of Sir Charles Cotton, who used Davisian theoretical methods to elucidate the evolution of hard‐rock coasts, to Jeremy Gibb’s nationwide benchmark measurements of historical erosion rates. This review is augmented with a description of state‐of‐the art methods in use globally for investigating processes of cliff evolution. Key methods identified include detailed measurements u..