Abstract

RIBEIRO, Juliana dos Santos; SOUSA, Paulo Henrique Gomes de Oliveira; VIEIRA, Danilo Rodrigues  and  SIEGLE, Eduardo. Evolution of vulnerability to coastal erosion at Massaguaçú Beach, Brazil. RGCI [online]. 2013, vol.13, n.3, pp.253-265. ISSN 1646-8872.  https://doi.org/10.5894/rgci377.

Coastal erosion can cause major environmental and social damage to coastal areas, and disorderly and inadequate human occupation at these sites can lead to erosion. Massaguaçú Beach, on the northern coast of São Paulo State, has suffered severe erosion in recent years. In the most severe cases, erosion had already begun to affect the road way Dr. Manuel Hyppolito Rego (SP-55) that runs next to the beach. Several efforts have been implemented to contain this problem, but have proved to be unsuccessful. The cause of these erosions remain unclear, however, studies suggest that these changes in the coast line may be related to the increasing urbanization around the beach. Because of this phenomenon, this study aimed to analyze the coastal erosion vulnerability at the beach over a period of 40 years, with the objective of evaluating if human occupation had a significant impact in the local erosion. Data was gathered using nine vulnerability indicators: beach width, shoreline position, offshore settings, presence of rivers and/or inlets, terrain elevation, vegetation, coastal engineering structures, occupation rate and soil permeability.

Keywords : Indicators of vulnerability; Geographic Information System (GIS); urban planning.

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