Ángela Fontán Bouzas

University of Vigo | UVIGO · Department of Marine Geosciences and Territorial Planning

Double and triple tombolos are rare on Holocene coasts. It has been proposed that the double tombolo of Calpe has existed since the Upper Pleistocene. The aim of this work is to demonstrate, map and deduce the implications of the existence of this double tombolo in the Upper Pleistocene. The analysis of high-resolution bathymetry and seabed classes...

This work shows how observation, curiosity and perseverance in the face of a coastal erosion problem in the Colombian Caribbean can become a successful and replicable citizen science initiative. This initiative, developed by one person from the community and advised by experts in the area, consists of the adaptation of a soft protection measure aga...

Integrated coastal zone management in Rio Grande do Sul (RS, Brazil) is crucial to preserve ecosystems and combat erosion caused by natural and anthropogenic factors. Studies on changes in the coastal dune system in northern RS since the 1980s highlight the reduction of dune areas, restricting them to a narrow strip between the urbanised area and t...

The rocky coast of the Prebetic System (southeast Iberian Peninsula) presents a marked tecto-structural control and by subaerial processes. The objective of this study is the morphometric characterization of this rocky coast. The analysis of the digital elevation model (2x2 m grid resolution) obtained from LIDAR, combined with the geological map, f...

At shallow areas of the Galician Rías, communities carry out an important socioeconomic practice of shellfish harvesting on sediments. This activity is currently suffering a decline in bivalve productivity with causes not yet identified. In this context, it is known that variations in the hydrodynamics associated with climate change and human inter...

Interaction of Anthropic interventions (rigid structures) with coasts is an essential aspect for understanding their geomorphic evolution and incorporating these data into adequate coastal management. This study analyses the short and long-term behavior (1985 to 2019) of shoreline at Santa Marta Bay (Caribbean - Colombia) and their relationship wit...

The morphological responses of two mesotidal beaches located in different coastal settings (embayed and open sandy beaches) on the northwestern Iberian coast were monitored during the winter of 2018/19. The offshore wave time series analysis is related to high-resolution topo-bathymetric measurements to explore spatial-temporal morphological variab...

Sediment tracer studies have become an increasingly used and improved technique. This approach allows to evaluate the sediment dispersion and track their pathways in a real marine environment. This type of study is essential to improve current coastal morphodynamic models since questions such as 'Where does the sand nourishment go?' are complex to...

Coastal dunes that transgress typically move landward, while their reverse movement is not well understood. The article discusses the study of barchan and barchanoid dunes in the Lagoa do Peixe National Park in the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The aim of the study is to analyze seasonal patterns and long-term trends in the direction...

Previously, paired spits have been described at the mouths of bays, estuaries, and deltas. This study analyzed the worldwide distribution and morphodynamic patterns of paired spits located at the mouths of interdistributary bays of deltas (three systems) and within coastal channels (24 systems). The methodology was based on the detailed analysis of...

Interaction of Anthropic interventions (rigid structures) with coasts is an essential aspect for understanding their geomorphic evolution and incorporating these data into adequate coastal management. This study analyses the short and long-term behavior (1985 to 2019) of shoreline at Santa Marta Bay (Caribbean-Colombia) and their relationship with...

Repetitive data collection is imperative regarding accurate coastal monitoring and appropriate coastal management strategies design. This study analyses high-resolution topo-bathymetric data gathered at Aveiro coast (NW Portugal) between 2012 and 2018. Using Geographic Information System techniques, the beach response and the sediment budget evolut...

Galician rias face the energetic waves of the North Atlantic Ocean. In some cases, rias’ systems are semi-protected by islands at the entrance, as is the case of the Cíes Islands, which divide the mouth of the Vigo Ria into two separated channels. This geological setting may affect the wave propagation and sediment transport processes. This work an...

We present ten years of satellite-derived shorelines at high-energy beaches in the Aveiro region (Portugal) that have simultaneously been accurately monitored in situ. Here we examine the alongshore seasonal dynamics during the last decade. This research applies the SHOREX system for defining the shoreline position from free mid-resolution Landsat-...

This study shows the first identification and geomorphological description of double spits in both, the mouth of coastal channels and the interdistributary bays of deltas. The methodology is based in detailed worldwide analysis of satellite images, nautical charts, and tide prediction software. They are mainly located in pristine microtidal coasts...

The southwest of the Colombian Caribbean is susceptible to the sea level rise and the accelerated coastline retreat. In this sense, this work proposes a vulnerability evaluation in front of the sea level rise in four critical zones on the Antioquian coast (Colombian Caribe): Punta Las Vacas, Zapata, Río Hobo and Volcán de Lodo, the Coastal Vulnerab...

This study analyses the coastal vulnerability to sea level rise by the integration of the geomorphological, socioeconomic, and ecological aspects of vulnerability. The analysis has been carried out in the littoral of Calpe and Carreira Bay, located in the southeast and northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, respectively. The methodology include fieldw...

The assessment of coastal vulnerability related to coastal erosion is essential in decision making and coastal management. The main goal of the present work is to characterize the 50 km coastal stretch between Aveiro lagoon inlet and the Mondego Cape (NW Portugal) to assess the vulnerability of the beaches. For that purpose, over two years, topogra...

Resumen: Los vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAV) han sido ampliamente documentados como plataformas de vigilancia costera accesibles, de bajo costo y alta resolución. En este trabajo se han cartografiado 13,74 km 2 de la zona costera de las bahías Fildes y Almirantazgo, mediante 194 vuelos con un Dron Mavic 2 PRO equipado con cámaras RGB. Las foto...

This study investigates the wave-induced response of morphologically contrasted beaches according to a comparable exposure degree to offshore wave forcing. Two datasets of simultaneous topographic surveys were conducted during winter 2018/2019. The study sites are located on the northwest Iberian sandy coastal stretches. A linear sandy beach on the...

The intertidal sandbanks and beaches of Galicia are the main framework of culture farms and the harvesting of shellfish. Future variations in sedimentological, oceanographic and hydrological conditions associated with climate change will modify the habitats of those organisms to an extent that still needs for evaluation given its importance to mult...

At coasts, sandy beach-dune systems act as natural barriers to environmental forcing, preventing coastal flooding and protecting coastal communities. In the context of coastal studies, it is fundamental to identify beach-dune sectors exposed to wave impact to support coastal management and suggest soft engineering interventions. This work examines...

Shoreline changes are associated with natural and anthropic factors, such as sea-level rise, sediment budget, and beach fills. Shoreline retreat is mainly related to sediment deficit and sea-level rise. Some studies show that by the end of the 21st century some beaches may be lost, with the erosion of sandy beaches becoming predominant across the g...

An overview of UAS4Litter experiences and publications (Nov. 2021)

The SEAFLOWER Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is the largest Marine Protected Area in the Caribbean Sea and the second largest in Latin America. Marine protected areas are under pressure from various stressors, one of the most important issues being pollution by marine litter, especially plastic. In this study our aim is to establish the distribution patte...

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS, aka drones) are being used to map macro-litter on the environment. Sixteen qualified researchers (operators), with different expertise and nationalities, were invited to identify, mark and categorize the litter items (manual image screening, MS) on three UAS images collected at two beaches. The coefficient of concordan...

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones) are being used to map marine macro-litter on the coast. Within the UAS4Litter project, the application of UAS has been applied on three sandy beachdune systems on the wave-dominated North Atlantic Portuguese coast. Several technical solutions have been tested in terms of drone mapping performance, manual im...

This work shows an integrated approach for coastal environmental monitoring, which aimed to understand the relation between beach-dune morphodynamics, marine litter abundance and environmental forcing. Three unmanned aerial system (UAS) flights were deployed on a beach-dune system at the Atlantic Portuguese coast to assess two main goals: (i) quant...

On a cuspate sandy foreland, the cycle of beach erosion and recovery is driven by the bi-directional approaches of wave climates, which also determine its specific shape. This work describes the seasonal morphodynamics of the Maspalomas natural cuspate foreland over a period of six years. This area, located in the south of Gran Canaria Island, cons...

The high energetic wave climate of the North Atlantic Ocean causes important morphological changes at Figueira da Foz coastal system (W Portugal), which is comprised of sandy beaches and the Mondego estuary-inlet. The submerged sandbar at the inlet mouth is highly dynamic inducing short waves shoaling and breaking processes that can entail navigati...

The knowledge of sediment transport of different sediment fractions is essential to improve current coastal morphodynamic models. The application of sediment tracers is a methodology widely used to study sediment transport under different oceanographic and beach morphodynamic conditions. The goal of this work is to analyze the behavior of fluoresce...

High-frequency measurements are essential to understand the physical processes driving short-term beach morphodynamics and to evaluate the coastal storm impacts. The NW Iberian coast is a wave-dominated environment exposed to high energetic wave from the North Atlantic, where storms can cause damages on a short scale of time. This communication ill...

Extreme storms are characterised by large wave heights, cause strong impacts on coastal zone such as beach/dune erosion, overwash, dune breaching and even coastline changes. The main goal of this work is to evaluate the response of natural and anthropized beaches in the West coast of Portugal to Adrian Storm. Topographical surveys before and after...

The NW Iberian coast is a wave-dominated environment exposed to the high energetic wave forcing of the North Atlantic Ocean, where storm events often endanger humans and cause economical losses. Improving the knowledge of morphological nearshore changes induced by storms on a short- to medium- time scale is crucial to assess coastal vulnerability a...

This communication presents the preliminary results obtained from the analysis of a high-frequency and high-resolution beach survey program that was carried out on the Portuguese coastal stretch of Mira beach. 2D and 3D topographic surveys were analysed to identify the features generally used as morphodynamic indicators of the dune-beach system, na...

O conhecimento da evolução dos sistemas praia-duna é primordial para mitigar os impactes da erosão. Este trabalho estima indicadores geomorfológicos na zona costeira de Aveiro a partir dos dados topográficos. Os resultados mostram que a evolução dos indicadores está relacionada com as atividades antrópicas e as condições de agitação marítima.

Wave runup is a fundamental parameter for coastal studies to predict the impact of waves on coastal systems. This work reports wave runup measurements at Costa Nova beach, using video-derived measures in comparison to empirical wave runup prediction formulas. The Stockdon et al. (2006) empirical formula suits to the observations.

Mapping beach topography and nearshore bathymetry is fundamental to understand coastal physical processes and to support coastal management decision-making. Conventional survey methodologies require intense human effort and are logistically difficult to perform, especially at the high energetic Portuguese coast. Video imagery techniques arise in th...

A monitorização das áreas costeiras é essencial para conhecer a dinâmica sedimentar e a forma como os fatores externos determinam a sua evolução. A análise da morfodinâmica permite estabelecer formas de previsão do comportamento evolutivo das zonas costeiras. O presente estudo tem com objetivo principal caracterizar a evolução da morfologia do sist...

As costas arenosas são ambientes muito dinâmicos onde as mudanças morfológicas estão associadas a vários fatores e processos externos como, por exemplo, a agitação marítima e os temporais. O conhecimento da variação da posição da linha de costa e das taxas de erosão é essencial para sustentar uma gestão costeira eficiente. No presente trabalho pret...

The sedimentary patterns of Araçá Bay and the adjacent sector of the São Sebastião Channel (SSC) were determined by grain size parameters and carbonate content. The inner bay contains two intertidal flat facies, with very fine to coarse sand and very coarse silt respectively. The outer bay is a subtidal flat facies with unimodal very well sorted an...

The Buarcos - Figueira da Foz coastal stretch is located on the northwest coast of Portugal and is exposed to a high energetic wave climate, which promotes a southward longshore sediment drift of about 1100×103 m3/year. The presence of Mondego estuary inlet at south of Figueira da Foz Beach and the recent extension of the north jetty leads to sedim...

Storm erosion at beach-dune environments is one of the most important hazards on the Portuguese central coast. Detailed geomorphological characterization of littoral systems is crucial to estimate future impacts and coastal resilience. A topographic monitoring program allowed the quantification of the impact of extreme events at the coastal stretch...

Figueira da Foz jettied estuary-inlet undergoes important morphological changes in response to the high energetic wave climate of the North Atlantic Ocean. These changes generate shoaling problems at the inlet due to the formation of a submerged sandbar. Therefore, harbor administration normally performs coastal dredging operations to guarantee nav...

Figueira da Foz coastal region (W Portugal), that comprises sandy beaches and the Mondego estuary-inlet, is exposed to the high energetic wave climate of the North Atlantic Ocean, which induces important local morphological changes. These changes entail shoaling problems as the formation of a submerse sandbar at the inlet which can block navigation...

Field surveys at Figueira da Foz coastal system, a jettied river-mouth located to the W of Portugal, show a high impact of storm events on the morphological evolution of the ebb-tidal delta, with formation of a submerged sandbar and the quick infill of dredged areas. Non-stormy wave conditions produce minor morphological changes. The morphodynamic...

A morfologia da embocadura do porto da Figueira da Foz é determinada pela conjugação de diferentes processos hidrodinâmicos e é caracterizada pela presença de uma barra que coloca em risco a navegabilidade nesta zona. Para compreender os processos físicos associados à formação e desenvolvimento da barra é necessário explorar uma componente de model...

O conhecimento dos regimes de ondulação de temporal é primordial para mitigar os impactes na zona costeira, mas nem sempre existem dados de agitação medidos com boias ondógrafo junto dos locais de interesse. Este trabalho compara os temporais identificados a partir dos registos da boia de Leixões, a mais próxima da zona costeira de Aveiro/Figueira...

A entrada do Porto da Figueira da Foz, localizada no estuário do rio Mondego, apresenta intenso transporte sedimentar, associado a condições de temporal que induz variações significativas na morfologia na embocadura. A dinâmica sedimentar condiciona o acesso dos navios às instalações portuárias, pelo que este trabalho tem como objetivo relacionar o...

A entrada do Porto da Figueira da Foz, localizada no estuário do rio Mondego, apresenta intenso transporte sedimentar, associado a condições de temporal que induz variações significativas na morfologia na embocadura. A dinâmica sedimentar condiciona o acesso dos navios às instalações portuárias, pelo que este trabalho tem como objetivo relacionar o...

Depth of closure (DoC) is here considered as the depth below which bathymetric changes are not detected. Demarcate this limit of the beach morphodynamic active area has a high interest for beach nourishment and other coastal engineering projects (Robertson et al., 2008). Several studies agree that wave forcing is the main responsible factor on DoC...

The presence of fossil or relict bedforms is common in the Quaternary fill of modern continental shelf due to sea level oscillations, tectonic subsidence and migration of associated sedimentary facies. The continental margin of the Gulf of Valencia has been strongly influenced by glacio-eustasy and neotectonic. High-resolution multibeam bathymetry...

Resumen: El litoral y la plataforma continental interna son regiones marinas que suelen estudiarse por separado, si bien los procesos hidrográficos, el transporte de sedimentos y la morfología del relieve en ambas regiones están íntimamente relacionados, con múltiples interacciones entre ellos. Los estudios topo-batimétricos y de corrientes en las...

The focus of this study is the analysis of coastal sand barriers and associated coastal lagoons on the inner continental shelf of the Gulf of Valencia (western Mediterranean), based on two W–E seismic profiles recorded seaward of the Albufera de Valencia coastal lagoon. Seismic facies identified include a number of coastal sand barriers with landwa...

The objective of this study is to document and interpret a recently discovered carbonate-cemented coastal barrier on the inner shelf of the Gulf of Valencia (western Mediterranean Sea). The coastal barrier was identified in a high-resolution digital bathymetric model based on a cartographic survey of the study area using a multibeam echosounder. Mo...

Numerous studies have shown that most beaches and coastal dune systems of the world are currently eroding but very few have investigated the combined sediment budgets of subaerial and nearshore submarine systems. In the case of the dune field of the Maspalomas Natural Special Reserve (in the south of Gran Canaria), the adjacent Maspalomas and El In...

Coastal and inner shelf marine areas are usually studied separately, although the hydrodynamics processes, sediment transport and relief morphology in both regions are closely related, with complex interactions between them. Topo-bathymetric and physical oceanographic surveys on south of Gran Canaria beaches and inner shelf show as sediment fluxes...

The analysis of the accurate topo-bathymetric digital elevation model (DEM), the cartography of the submarine sedimentary cover and the monitoring of short (seasonal) and medium-term (2000-2009) morphological changes have permitted depicting the erosional trend in the short and medium-term of the Maspalomas sedimentary system. Short-term analysis s...

The Ruidera Lakes are located along the Guadiana Valley, forming a fluvial network developed with a predominant NW-SE drainage direction on a great Mesozoic plain with quite homogeneous lithology. The lakes are the result of the precipitation of tuffaceous barriers. This paper presents a study carried out since the appearance in January 2007 of a s...