Under the effect of the strong storms that hit the country at the beginning of the year, the ocean swallowed up meters of beach on the Portuguese coast. The government has already allocated several million euros to try to adapt to the phenomenon.
The storms at the beginning of the year caused damage throughout the country and the coast was no exception. The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) recorded a total of 749 incidents on the Portuguese coast, including the retreat of the coastline which, in many places, was between 10 and 20 meters.
« Almost all beaches have recorded a significant reduction in their sediment content in the emerged area, » says the APA report.
On the beach of São João da Caparica, in the municipality of Almada, the agency indicates that between January 20 and February 19, the beach has receded by a maximum of 14 meters. According to the mayor of Almada, the natural dune and the project to preserve it, called « Reduna », prevented the beach from losing more area.
Dune on the beach of São João da Caparica Euronews/Bruno Silva
A few kilometers away, in Fonte da Telha, the mayor describes a similar scenario, aggravated by the presence of dealers very close to the waterline.
« In some areas, the concessionaires were very affected, but they were not more affected because they had a dune created by work carried out in Fonte da Telha and which allowed the sea not to enter, because before, the sea reached the road, » she explained to Euronews.
For now, we are waiting for the sandbankments promised to the municipality which, according to Inês de Medeiros, were essential to preserve not only the beaches, but also the urban area itself.
« What we noticed is that these successive embankments, despite everything, have saved and, apart from the urban beach area, where the APA will already replenish the sand, in general, our coast has not decreased much and we hope that now the sea will bring sand again. »
According to the mayor, the APA has promised to fill the sand from April, a job that it considers « absolutely necessary« .
« People do not always understand, because they think that throwing sand into the sea is throwing money on the street, but this is not the case, because all these embankments have allowed greater sedimentation of the seabed and that is what makes it possible to safeguard the coast, » explains the mayor, who points out that there is a strong human presence by the sea and that protective measures are therefore necessary, in a game of balance between the phenomena of nature and the solutions presented by engineering.
« In the case of beaches, as I said, engineering will not solve the problem, but in the case of population protection, it solves it, » explains Inês de Medeiros. « It will probably be necessary to raise the dike to protect the urban area, which will have the immediate effect of significantly reducing the risk of flooding, which is quite normal.
111 million euros to protect the Portuguese coast
The beaches of Costa da Caparica are only one of the places mentioned in the APA report, which conducted a nationwide investigation. Coastal erosion and cliff instability are the main damages mentioned, as well as other problems such as damaged accesses and other structures such as walls and ramparts. The municipality of Ovar was the most affected, with 204 reports of damage.
In order to compensate for the effects of storms on the coast, the APA announced an investment program of 15 million euros « until the end of May – the beginning of the seaside season, in emergency interventions to repair damage on the coast and 12 million until December« . These figures are part of a total investment in the coastal area of 111 million euros to « recover and strengthen the protection of the Portuguese coastline, » the executive revealed.
« The planned response includes a series of priority work to restore infrastructure, strengthen coastal protection and restore conditions for safety and beach enjoyment, » the government said in a statement.
« The interventions include the reconstruction of access to the beaches, the reinforcement of the dune cordons, the stabilization of the cliffs, the recovery of the walkways and the operations of artificial reloading of the beaches. »
São João da Caparica Beach Euronews/Bruno Silva
Coastal erosion, a multifactor phenomenon
The retreat of the beaches is not a problem specific to the Portuguese coast, nor is it exclusively due to bad weather. « This is a process, say, expected, that has been occurring for decades and is linked to different factors, » João Joanaz de Melo, university professor and land use planning expert, told Euronews.
Among the « various factors » cited are the accelerated rise in sea levels in recent years, the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, « which has been occurring for decades« , and the structural deficit of sand on the Portuguese coast, also caused by human action.
« This phenomenon is mainly due to the construction of dams since the 1950s, » explains the professor. « The large reservoirs retain the sediments that, in a natural hydrological system, would reach our coast in much greater quantities, » adds the professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the New University of Lisbon.
In addition to the construction of dams, the lack of sand on the coast can also be explained by other factors such as the extraction of sand in estuaries and bars, the degradation of dunes which, according to the university professor, « give resilience to our coastline« , and rigid constructions such as dikes, which protect urban areas but increase erosion in other areas by reflecting the energy of the waves.
« When the sea hits the rock, instead of the energy dissipating, as is the case in a dune in good condition, this energy will be reflected and will increase the erosion capacity of the sea in other areas, » explains the expert.
« Here, in the case of the Costa da Caparica, this combined effect of sand extraction and the construction of dams in the Tagus basin moved the sea forward several hundred meters, mainly in the 1960s. This is what led to the construction of this protective structure, the dike and the field of ears, to protect the urban center of Costa da Caparica. »
João Joanaz de Melo explains that this winter’s storms « caused a phenomenon a little more intense than usual, which is natural« .
« It is normal that in winter we have less sand on the beaches and that in spring and summer, most of this sand, which was eroded during the storms of autumn and winter, returns to the beach, » explains the expert, who points out, however, that, as there is a lack of sand in the system, « from year to year, if nothing is done, the amount of sand on the beach will decrease« .
« No miracle solution »
Mitigation measures include strengthening natural resilience and reducing risk exposure. Reloading in sand by dredging allows the beach to be temporarily recovered, but does not solve the structural deficit in sediments. This is why land use planning is crucial: it is necessary to avoid building in high-risk areas, remove vulnerable occupations and only allow compatible uses, such as tourist facilities, provided that they are protected.
« In many cases, it is a matter of complying with the law, and in other cases, it is a matter of correcting these municipal plans so that they comply with good planning practices, » explains João Joanaz de Melo. « Then there are special situations, less vulnerable occupations, linked to the very touristy use of these spaces, which must obviously exist. »
These protection and construction measures must be adapted to the physical, social and economic characteristics of each area.
« Costa Caparica is originally a community of fishermen and farmers, so it is used to dealing with storms and occasional floods, like many other communities in the country who know what it is like to deal with these phenomena. But we need protective measures, because there are measures that do not depend on individuals, but on the organization, planning, surveillance of the territory and the organization of resources that are in the hands of local authorities or companies, » he explains, stressing that there are no miracle solutions that can be applied uniformly throughout the Portuguese territory.
« Geographical conditions are different, people’s habits and their preparation to face these phenomena are different, economic activities are different and, therefore, solutions must be adapted to this set of circumstances in each case. »
source : Euro news
