The effects of the anthropic actions on the sandy beaches of Guardamar del Segura, Spain

Abstract

There are many activities and uses in the coastal environment, which has historically attracted the humans. This attraction has led to many anthropic actions that have generated imbalances, more important as the human pressure increases. This research focuses on the effects of these pressures along of 11 km of the coastline of Guardamar del Segura, a high-value environmental area where is the Segura River mouth and one of the last dune systems of the southeast of Spain. The historic evolution of the shoreline position has been analysed using 60 years of aerial images from 1950s to 2014, the seabed depth changes, the maritime climate, the distribution of the sediment grain size and the anthropic actions such as urban development or the channelling of the river. All data were integrated and processed using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The results show that the lack of sediment supply by Segura River and the cut-off in the longshore transport due to the breakwaters and others anthropic actions has led into an increase in the beaches erosion rates, with a loss of > 3.2 million m3 of sand in the last 58 years (≈ 55,200 m3/year). The conclusions of this research could be useful to the coastal managers at the moment of making the decisions of action and/or conservation on a coastal system to achieve positive results in the medium and long term.