Northlanders are being encouraged to take photos of this week’s king tides in a citizen scientist project to help monitor the impact of sea level rise into the future.
Northland Regional Council (NRC) was asking for people to take local photos of the effects of king tides today through to Thursday, uploading them to its website.
Photographers could upload the photos from around the highest tide time to the council website, where they were also added to a map of the region to show what was happening where.
The council was seeking king tide photos from Northland’s east coast from March 11 to 14 and west coast on March 11 and 12.
NRC said the citizen scientist photography had an important role in data monitoring and collection, and built a useful pool of local knowledge.
“Your photo may help us identify areas that are already at risk from higher water levels,” the NRC website says.
The photos were used to observe, visualise and understand the impacts of future sea level rise on coastal communities, help document current coastal flood risks, validate climate change models, and serve as a living record of change for future generations.
Members of a Whangārei cancer Monday morning walking group, who were walking the Town Basin loop, said this morning tides were definitely rising.
“The tides are getting higher at Kissing Point,” Peter Attwood said.
Tūtūkākā tides were also doing the same, Keith Whalley said.
The men, who were also former boaties, walked the Town Basin loop weekly and were there at the 9.28am king tide high today.
Members said photographing the impacts of these tides was a great idea.
Meanwhile, Town Basin German yachties Andre and Hannah Waidelich, who lived on their 10m yacht, said it was important councils ensured infrastructure could deal with the challenges of king tides in a sea level-challenged future. Germany was also experiencing similar issues, the couple said.
King tides and their effects were visible locally and across the ocean.
The couple said the impact of sea level rise was clear throughout their travels including in the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia where the biggest high tides were already threatening some of the group’s about 80 islands and atolls.
King tides were the highest high tides of the year that happened roughly every seven months.
This year’s Autumn king tides were occurring over several days in January, February, March and April when the sun, moon and Earth aligned to create strong gravitational pull on the ocean. They happened when the full or new moon coincided with the moon being closest to Earth in its monthly orbit.
Climate change and sea level rise amplified the height of these king tides.
“When king tides occur during floods or storms, water levels can rise even higher and have the potential to cause great damage to the coastline and coastal property,” the NRC website says.
“King tides give us a glimpse into the future of what Northland’s coastline may look like as a result of sea level rise.
“This is because as sea levels rise, the highest high tides will become even higher and reach further inland.
"We want to understand how higher sea levels resulting from climate change could impact Northland’s coastline and sharing photos of local king tides will help understand and plan for this.”
Next month, the council was wanting photos from the east coast on April 9-11 and west coast on April 9-10. In May, it wanted photos from the east coast only, from May 8-10.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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