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- Field measurements and hydrodynamic modelling to evaluate the importance of factors controlling overwashPublication . Matias, Ana; Carrasco, A.R.; Loureiro, Carlos; Masselink, Gerd; Andriolo, Umberto; McCall, Robert; Ferreira, Oscar; Plomaritis, Theocharis; Pacheco, André; Guerreiro, MarthaOverwash hydrodynamic datasets are mixed in quality and scope, being difficult to obtain due to fieldwork experimental limitations. Nevertheless, these measurements are crucial to develop reliable models to predict overwash. Aiming to overcome such limitations, this work presents accurate fieldwork data on overwash hydrodynamics, further exploring it to model overwash on a low-lying barrier island. Fieldwork was undertaken on Barreta Island (Portugal) in December 2013, during neap tides and under energetic conditions, with significant wave height reaching 2.6 m. During approximately 4 h, more than 120 shallow overwash events were measured with a video-camera, a pressure transducer and a current-meter. This high-frequency fieldwork dataset includes runup, overwash number, depth and velocity. Fieldwork data along with information from literature were used to implement XBeach model in non-hydrostatic mode (wave-resolving). The baseline model was tested for six verification cases; and the model was able to predict overwash in five. Based in performance metrics and the verification cases, it was considered that the Barreta baseline overwash model is a reliable tool for the prediction of overwash hydrodynamics. The baseline model was then forced to simulate overwash under different hydrodynamic conditions (waves and lagoon water level) and morpho-sedimentary settings (nearshore topography and beach grain-size), within the characteristic range of values for the study area. According to the results, the order of importance of factors controlling overwash predictability in the study area are: 1st) wave height (more than wave period) can promote overwash 3–4 times more intense than the one recorded during fieldwork; 2nd) nearshore bathymetry, particularly shallow submerged bars, can promote an average decrease of about 30% in overwash; 3rd) grain-size, finer sediment produced an 11% increase in overwash due to reduced infiltration; and 4th) lagoon water level, only negligible differences were evidenced by changes in the lagoon level. This implies that for model predictions to be reliable, accurate wave forecasts are necessary and topo-bathymetric configuration needs to be monitored frequently.
- Towards assessing the resilience of complex coastal systems: examples from Ria Formosa (South Portugal)Publication . Kombiadou, Katerina; Matias, Ana; Carrasco, Rita; Ferreira, Oscar; Costas, S.; Vieira, G.The present paper contributes to assessing the resilience of a complex barrier island environment, namely of the Ria Formosa multi-inlet system in southern Portugal. The long-term morphologic evolution of four study areas during the last 60 years (1947 to 2014) is analysed based on aerial photographs, including the environments of oceanic and backbarrier beaches, dunes and salt marshes. The results show that each study area responded to external drivers (inlet stabilisation works, storms, etc.) differently, evolving in distinct patterns during the study period. All four study areas appear resilient to external pressures and/or forcing conditions, since they are either transforming (Barreta and Culatra islands), or adapting (Cabanas island and Cacela peninsula) or remaining stable at a near-equilibrium state (Tavira island). Based on the analysis of the multi-decadal evolution of the sites, four resilient barrier states are identified, related to the maturity and growth of the barrier. In the next stages, the research will focus on the relation between medium to short-term changes, aiming at understanding the response and feedbacks of the environments to specific drivers of change and relating them to resilience indicators.
- Overtopping hazard on a rubble mound breakwaterPublication . Carrasco, A. Rita; Reis, Maria T.; Neves, Maria G.; Ferreira, Oscar; Matias, Ana; Almeida, SílviaA major concern of coastal engineering is not only to access the damage to coastal structures by severe wave overtopping, but also the hazard imposed to users. Local hazard is often associated to the volume of overtopping water per unit of time (called overtopping discharge). Despite two decades of intensive research, it is yet not fully clear to practitioners what is the best method to compute the discharge parameter and its application on the assessment of local hazard. This work provides insight into the overtopping characterization in rubble mound breakwaters, by distinguishing different methods to assess hazardous overtopping. Fieldwork was conducted over a tidal cycle in a breakwater located at Albufeira Harbour (South coast of Portugal) under storm conditions (Hso~ 3 m; Tp ~ 9 s). Mean overtopping discharges were calculated from field measurements of flow depths and velocities at the breakwater slope armour and at the impermeable crest. Two different velocities were calculated: overtopping leading-edge velocity and overtopping peak velocity. The two methods provided similar results, with higher velocities occurring during high-tide (between 2 and 10 m/s). Mean overtopping discharges at the beginning of the impermeable crest ranged between 0.2 and 0.8 l/s/m. Under the measured hydrodynamic conditions, the breakwater offers risk to all types of pedestrians. Additionally it is shown that field measurements compare relatively well with empirical prediction methods (for the overall analysed overtopping events), namely the corrected NN_OVERTOPPING2 neural network tool. Besides contributing to the overall database on wave overtopping in coastal structures, the presented results can also be used for calibration and validation of overtopping evaluation methods (empirical formulae, artificial neural networks and numerical and physical models).
- Impacts of human interventions on the evolution of the Ria Formosa barrier island system (S. Portugal)Publication . Kombiadou, Katerina; Matias, Ana; Ferreira, Oscar; Carrasco, A. Rita; Costas, Susana; Plomaritis, TheocharisHuman interventions on sandy barriers disturb natural barrier dynamics, to the extent of having become key forces in modifying geomorphological evolution. This work identifies natural and human-induced drivers and analyses their importance to the multi-decadal evolution of the Ria Formosa barrier island system, in South Portugal. Aerial photographs from the last six decades and historical maps are used to assess changes in cross-shore rates, morphological characteristics (barrier and dune widths, inlet morphology and migration) and barrier areas, through systematic methods that can be easily transferred to other barrier systems. Interventions, and especially hard engineering ones (jetties, inlet stabilisations), affected barrier evolution trends. Shore-perpendicular works increased shoreline progradation updrift and initiated coastal retreat downdrift, with strongest erosive impacts along the edges of the system. Inlet stabilisations changed tidal inlet hydrodynamics and initiated ebb-shoal attachment to the barriers on either side of a non-migrating inlet that experienced loss of tidal prism. This shoal attachment was the main factor for the increase in total barrier area of Ria Formosa during the 60 years of analysis. Barrier growth after 2005 was slower, which could indicate that the system is reaching morphodynamic stability.
- An evolutionary categorisation model for backbarrier environmentsPublication . Carrasco, Ana Rita; Ferreira, Oscar; Davidson, M.; Matias, Ana; Dias, J. A.Shorelines occurring along restricted fetch environments, such as the backsides of barrier islands, are extremely diverse with respect to their morphologic characteristics and evolution. In order to better understand the morphodynamic evolution of backbarriers and the associated implications for entire barrier systems, this study proposes a backbarrier evolutionary categorisation model based on the development of two types of index: backbarrier evolution tendency and backbarrier maturation condition. The proposed characterisation system is applied to the Ria Formosa backbarrier (located in southern Portugal) for the period 1947 to 2001. Cross-shore and longshore backbarrier trends in Ria Formosa suggest a shrinking of the lagoon system as a consequence of a decrease in the coastal length of the backbarrier coastline and a landward displacement of it. Even though some of the backbarriers examined were found to be in an immature state, the results obtained illustrate a maturing trend for the system overall. Barriers in Ria Formosa fall into two main evolutionary categories: backbarrier reduction and backbarrier growth. This means that neither smoothing nor branching has been significant and therefore that backbarrier recent evolution is closely related to barrier coast length. Application of the proposed characterisation to the Ria Formosa case study has helped reveal backbarrier evolutionary trends and therefore should be of use in the management of backbarrier systems.
- Bridging the gap between resilience and geomorphology of complex coastal systemsPublication . Kombiadou, Katerina; Costas, Susana; Carrasco, A. Rita; Plomaritis, Theocharis; Ferreira, Oscar; Matias, AnaResilience has been used over a wide range of scientific fields and often ambiguously, causing confusion over terminology and concepts and giving rise to distinct interpretations and misconceptions, even within the same scientific discipline. Starting by providing clarifications and definitions of the main terminology and key principles of ecological resilience theory, we pass on to expressing them through geomorphic dimensions of barrier islands. Three distinct environments (beach, dune, marsh) are proposed as the panarchical levels of analysis, along with potential feedbacks between them and geomorphic dimensions that can express the changes of the stability landscape. Morphological changes induced by storms and subsequent recovery are transferred to stability landscapes, over a range of storm impacts and recovery. We postulate that postperturbation recovery should not be restricted to regaining pre-disturbance barrier dimensions, but should be viewed in terms of reorganisation and adaptation, accounting for maintaining the existence of functions, or the ability of the system to regain them. The proposed scheme and dimensions are tested using geomorphological data from barrier response to distinct disturbances, over different temporal scales that range from event to multi-decadal ones. The case of a barrier island migrating landwards is conceptualised in terms of alternative states and thresholds arising during the process and related phases and changes to the adaptive cycle. The methodology and approach presented is a step towards more holistic views of geomorphic systems’ resilience that we hope will contribute to furthering interdisciplinary understanding and cooperation in the area of sustainability and resilience of natural systems.