Author(s): Angela Palao

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Beach nourishment coastal management erosion

Abstract: Local coastal management has had in many cases undesirable effects over bordering areas or even in more remote coastal zones. Fortunately, these design mistakes have alerted us about the importance of changing the perspective and looking for solutions that do not transfer the problem to other points of the coast. In other words, to have an integrated vision of the coast when designing a project. This is especially relevant when the project is located on an open coastal system, as occur in our project area: the extreme north of the province of Valencia. The littoral dynamics of the stretch of coast sited between the Port of Castellón and the Port of Sagunt has been modified due to different anthropogenic actions: 1.- The construction of the Sagunt (1902), Castellón (1915) and Burriana (1932) Ports, meant changes on sediments transport and generated accumulation and erosion processes at the north and south of them. 2.- The retention of river sediments, the increased exploitation of the Castellón aquifer and the forest mass increasement, leads to a reduction in runoff and in the contribution of river sediment of between 80% and 90%. 3.- The urbanizations on the dune cord, currently more than 40% of the stretch of coast is anthropized, eliminates the natural reservoir of sediment from the beaches in case of storm events. The sum of all these actions has generated accretions to the north face of the rigid obstacles, combined with strong setbacks on the coastline in various southward areas. The erosive problems in Castellón were progressively transferred to the project area, affected by an intense longitudinal transport from N to S. The Almenara beach, which limits with the extreme north of the Project site, has periodically been nourished with gravels in order to stabilize the littoral, but a fraction of these gravels have been transported to the south, varying the sediment grain size and the shape of the beach profile affected. Main problems in the project area are summarized as follow: • Erosion and reduction in the quality of beaches of Malvarrosa, Corinto and north of Almardà, due to the loss of fine sediment and the gravels accumulation that modify the beach profile to one less safety for bathers. • Loss of accumulated sand on the Canet beach, transported towards the south of the Port of Siles. • Deterioration of the dune cord, natural reservoir of sediment during storm events, which favors flooding and beach erosion. All these problems will be described in the oral presentation, also including the different alternatives proposed and the design of the solution selected, which not just temporary solves the problem but warranties the stability of neighbor zones that could be affected.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC252171192022973

Year: 2022