Coastal Zones

Vulnerabilities and risks in coastal areas have been increasing, particularly since the middle of the past century and a much more marked increase is anticipated after the middle of the current century. It is clear that human action has been the primary cause of imbalances, both directly (through local actions) and indirectly (through contributions to global warming and climate change). It is well known that traditional protection techniques of hard engineering, such as using rubble-mound breakwaters, groins and seawalls are inadequate to combat erosion on a large scale. These types of structures have high maintenance costs and may not be cost-effective or sustainable in the medium and long term. In some cases, these structures may even accelerate erosion by redirecting wave energy. This type of protection also has significant environmental effects in sectors linked to tourism and in industrial, agricultural, commercial and/or recreational activities. Coastal zones sustainability depends on the success of an integrated adaptation to human action and other changes that consider and promote the system’s ability to adapt. Using primarily events and imbalances caused by human action along the Portuguese Atlantic coast in the last decades of the past century, such as those shown in Figure 1, this work aims to show the paradigm shift that has occurred in Portugal since the 1990s. Options of this type lead to major changes in coastal morphodynamic processes and are difficult to reverse. Several such options have been implemented in most coastal areas all over the world and have had very damaging consequences that must be reversed. In such circumstances, it is necessary and urgent to find answers to what to do and how to do it. Adding to the current coastal vulnerabilities those arising from ongoing climate change, we conclude by the need to accelerate the processes of implementing appropriate adaptation measures. Less successful interventions carried out along the Portuguese coast in the years between 1970 and 2010 will be shown and discussed together with possible solutions in the context of integrated coastal management. This work thus aims at assisting coastal communities in carrying out operational coastal management by presenting and discussing management tools and primary options that should be considered in any adaptation program to be implemented.