Reconstruction of a two-century long sea level record for the Pertuis d’Antioche (France)

• A data archaeology exercise with sea level and atmospheric pressure data is presented.
• Historical and recent data are merged into one 188 yr-long composite sea level time series.
• Datum reconstruction is a crucial factor for building the composite.
• A 1.9 mm yr−1 rise in relative mean sea level is found for the 20th century.

This paper describes the work of sea level data rescue, digitization, reduction to a common vertical reference and quality control leading to the reconstruction of a time series for the Atlantic NW coast of France (Pertuis d’Antioche). A total of 14 sea level data sets were merged to build a consistent composite time series of monthly and annual mean sea levels spanning 188 years (1824–2011).The estimation of a linear trend for this time series yields a relative mean sea level rise for the region of 1.3±0.1 mm yr−1 for the whole study period, and 1.9±0.2 mm yr−1 for the 20th century, consistent with previous studies in the region. This work evidences the importance of data archaeology in the pursuing of historical information useful for sea level studies, which can be relevant for climate research and coastal management amongst other applications.