Effect of sea level rise on rivers flowing into the ocean: Application to the fly-strickland river system, papua new guinea

A consequence of the current global warming is rising sea level as polar ice melts. The future effect of such sea level rise on shorelines, river deltas and river long profiles is not well known. The problem may be understood by studying the consequences of Holocene sea level rise after the last glaciation. The melting of the Pleistocene glaciers caused a sea level rise of ∼120 m, mostly in a period of 12,000 years. Here the effect of rising sea level on river deltas and long profiles is explored numerically for the Fly-Strickland River System, Papua New Guinea for smooth and punctuated eustatic sea level rise. The effect of river size on delta response to sea level rise is also studied for three rivers, of which the initial river lengths are 400 km, 600 km and 800 km, respectively. These results indicate that sediment supply during floods plays a key role in determining the delta response to the sea level rise.