Author(s): Pedro Otinar Morillas; Marcus Santana; Manuel Cobos; Pedro Magana; Asuncion Baquerizo

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Keywords: Spatio-temporal coastline dynamic; Remote sensing; Wave climate; River sediments

Abstract: In the last decades a large variety of models have been developed to estimate the future behavior of the coastline. However, the uncertainty of the predictions is very large due to the limited amount of in situ data for their calibration and validation. Fortunately, technological advances are providing new sources of data which are becoming highly valuable. That is the case of remote sensing data, which are currently providing images with an interesting spatial and temporal resolution for modelling purposes. This type of information is available from, at least, the last two decades, but its use has increased exponentially at the coastal engineering field in the last few years. It allows a more exhaustive analysis of the dynamics of the coastline not only for long time scales (driven by cyclic long pattern climate variability as well as by sea level rise), but also for the short-term changes associated to the occurrence of storm events. The Guadalfeo river delta (Granada, Spain) is a highly altered coastal environment composed by heterogeneous material whose recent geological formation is related to the occurrence of extreme rainfall events that bring sediment pulses into the system, that are then redistributed along the coast by two alternating -almost opposite- wave incoming directions (Losada et al. 2011). Since the construction of a river dam at the beginning of the century at 8 km of its mouth, it is severely threatened by the shortage of sediment supply (Félix et al. 2012). The present work aims to assess the evolution of the coastline from the analysis of shorelines obtained from satellite imagery at the Guadalfeo river delta. Available climate data, that describe the agents that force the system, including wave climate, sea level changes as well as river sediment discharges, will be considered. The focus will be in the shoreline evolution after river discharges and rates of erosion/accretion and recovery after sea wave storms. The deeper knowledge of the system dynamics at different temporal resolutions will help in the development of more robust and accurate predictive models with the aim of assisting public administrations in the design of adaptative management strategies. References Félix, A., Baquerizo, A., Santiago, J. M., & Losada, M. A. (2012). Coastal zone management with stochastic multi-criteria analysis. Journal of environmental management, 112, 252-266. Losada, M. A., Baquerizo, A., Ortega-Sánchez, M., & Ávila, A. (2011). Coastal evolution, sea level, and assessment of intrinsic uncertainty. Journal of Coastal Research, (59), 218-228.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC2521711920221617

Year: 2022