Abstract
Atoll islands with low-lying and little resource have high vulnerability against the sea-level rise due to the global warming. The countermeasures concerning the future land maintenance against the sea-level rise should be considered immediately. However, the studies on the quantitative information or numerical models of atoll island changes are quite few. Thus, in this study, measurement of beach profiles in Laura islet located in the western part of Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands were carried out on the same profiles which were measured in 1997 and 1998 by SOPAC. Comparing our measurement results with the previous SOPAC's profiles revealed the quantitative profile changes during the last decade: from 1997 to 2007. It also revealed that the lagoonal coastline in Laura islet were stable in the last decade except some coast lines. We also reproduced these profile changes by the numerical model which was developed in this study based on longshore sediment transport system. The results of numerical calculation and the measured geographical changes showed a good agreement.
