Methodologies for coastal zone evolution analysis at medium-long term

Abstract

An integrated management of the coastal zone has to be supported by the knowledge of the forcing physical processes and the ability of prediction the morphological evolution at different time scales. In beach protection and/or rehabilitation studies the methodologies used in the analysis and prediction of the hydrosedimentologic behaviour of the systems, that often applies analytical and numerical tools, should be sustained and validated by field data, as topo-hydrographic information of the shoreline and adjacent coastal area evolution. In the present work the methodologies applied in LNEC to analyse the coastal zone evolution at medium-long term (years to decades) are discussed and two examples of their application in rehabilitation studies of beaches in critical erosive process are presented