Recent developments in understanding sea level rise at the Adriatic coasts

Observed trends in the longer records differ significantly for the periods before 1960 and after 1960. Atmospheric forcing has been a significant contribution in sea level variability for the period 1960 onwards. The atmospheric trends account for -0.8 mm/year for the period 1960-2000. No significant atmospheric trends appear to be present at the period 1900-1960. Changes in the atmospheric forcing alone are not capable of explaining fully the difference in the sea level trends for the periods before and after 1960.

Sea level observations from tide-gauge records located at the Adriatic coasts are analysed. The estimated sea level trends show variability in time and space. Spatial variability is assessed by estimating the differential trends by reference to Trieste. For many of the stations the differential trends become smaller than the corresponding error bars. This indicates that the land, atmospheric and oceanic contributors to sea level change are, at long scales, uniform in the basin.