Coastal dynamics monitoring on the key areas of oil and gas development at the Barents and Kara Seas has been carried out by Laboratory of Geoecology of the North at the Faculty of Geography (Lomonosov Moscow State University) together with Zubov State Oceanographic Institute (Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring) for more than 30 years. During this period, an up-to-date monitoring technology, which includes direct field observations, remote sensing and numerical methods, has been developed. The results of such investigations are analyzed on the example of the Ural coast of Baydaratskaya Bay, Kara Sea. The dynamics of thermal-abrasion coasts are directly linked with climate and sea ice extent change. A description of how the wind-wave energy flux and the duration of the ice-free period affect the coastal line retreat is provided, along with a method of the wind-wave energy assessment and its results for the Kara Sea region. We have also evaluated the influence of local anthropogenic impacts on the dynamics of the Arctic coasts. As a result, methods of investigations necessary for obtaining the parameters required for the forecast of the retreat of thermoabrasional coasts have been developed.

Coastal dynamics monitoring on the key areas of oil and gas development at the Barents and Kara Seas has been carried out by Laboratory of Geoecology of the North at the Faculty of Geography (Lomonosov Moscow State University) together with Zubov State Oceanographic Institute (Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring) for more than 30 years. During this period, a unique monitoring technology, which includes direct field observations, remote sensing and numerical methods, has been developed. The dynamics of thermal-abrasion coasts are directly linked with climate and sea ice extent changes. We have also evaluated the influence of local anthropogenic impacts on the dynamics of the Arctic coasts. As a result, a method of forecasting the dynamics of thermal-erosion coasts taking into account climate changes has been developed.

Coastal dynamics were observed near the Kharasavey settlement on the Yamal Peninsula during the summer of 2008, adding an additional year of data to an existing long-term record. Here stationary observations are conducted along a 21 km section of the coastline from Cape Kharasavey to Cape Burunniy. The northern half of this section is relatively stable, while the southern half was observed to be retreating. Observations were carried out using repeated geodetic surveying from 33 benchmarks which were set up in 1981. The rate of bluff erosion was measured in both natural and human influenced environments. In total, data on coastal erosion have been collected for an extensive coastal section of the Yamal Peninsula over a long time period (1981-2008 yrs). Using these data, we estimate the scale of morpholithodynamic processes. The average long-term rate of coastal erosion ranges from 0.2 to 2.8 m per year along the coast. As a result of coastal erosion, 47 500 m3 of unconsolidated matter moves into the water from the Kharasavey coastal section per year. Up to 80% of the eroded material is composed of fine-grained fractions. Simultaneous with direct observations of coastal dynamics in 2008, sediments from the coastal bluff were sampled along the same coastal section. At each point, samples were taken from the main lithological units and from the organic-rich upper part of the coastal bluff. Total carbon (TC) and total organic carbon (TOC) content in these samples leads to calculations of the carbon carbon flux into the sea along a 10 km of the shore.