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How old paintings can help track coastal evolution
“Bonchurch, Isle of Wight” by Thomas Leeson Rowbatham, 1863” Early coastal defences. (Photo: University of Portsmouth, UK.)
SHOWING people how rising sea levels are eating away at the coastline is no easy task. Plain cold measurements lack impact but a group of UK researchers and coastal consultants may have found a solution - old paintings.
They have assembled a collection of oils, watercolours and prints to demonstrate how erosion has already changed the shape of Britain’s coast over the centuries - and illustrate how the sea could alter the shoreline in the future. Isle of Wight-based consultant Dr Robin McInnes has teamed up with environmental specialists at the University of Portsmouth to examine coastal paintings of more than 400 artists including works dating back as far as 1770.
They finally selected 22 artists whose works they felt “could be trusted as a fair and accurate depiction of the coastline”.
“Using art in this way gives us a clear picture of the scale and pace of coastal evolution as well as environmental and developmental change,” Dr McInnes said.
“It helps us understand how it has been necessary for people who live on coasts to adapt to changing conditions over the centuries; in some locations this has involved retreating to higher or more stable ground further back from the coast.”
Says colleague Dr Jonathan Posts: “It is a really novel way of using art and it strikes a chord with local people because they can see straight away how their natural environment has changed.”
