Bruna Alves

Erosion and flooding are the most visible consequences of coastal zone degradation in West Africa. Man-made and natural processes, aggravated by the effects of climate change, cause erosion and flooding. These threatened densely populated coasts, the nerve center of the region’s demographic and economic growth. Every year, coastal degradation takes...

The West African coast is vulnerable to natural hazards and human interventions. Although various measures have been taken at different scales, mostly at the local level, there is a need to improve management at the regional level. We examine these actions and possible solutions from different perspectives and provide conclusions and recommendation...

Beaches are economically important natural coastal resources. They add beauty to the coast and provide habitats for many organisms as well as services to people. The focus of this paper was to investigate whether beach users were aware of the key factors that affect the quality of the Elmina beach. Specifically, the physical, social and economic pr...

High spatial resolution coastal Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are crucial to assess coastal vulnerability and hazards such as beach erosion, sedimentation, or inundation due to storm surges and sea level rise. This paper explores the possibility to use high spatial-resolution Pleiades (pixel size = 0.7 m) stereoscopic satellite imagery to retriev...

Coastal zones are complex systems where many different human activities and natural processes converge. One of the most profitable and enjoyable activities is beach tourism and recreation; however, coastal erosion can cause not only loss of land and asset values but also loss of environmental and landscape qualities and therefore their recreational...

Beaches are complex systems on which different activities and interests are pursued. The most widespread activities relate to tourism and recreation. An individual's choice for a particular coast depends on the site characteristics and user's perception. In order to identify beach users' profiles and perceptions, a beach survey was carried out in t...

Storms are one of the most important phenomena responsible for coastal erosion. Their destructive power presents major challenges for coastal management, and knowledge of their characteristics and associated consequences is therefore of paramount importance. In this study, thresholds for storm impacts are defined for a sandy coast in southern Portu...

Overwash is a natural storm-related process that occurs when wave runup overcomes the dune crest. Because coastlines are globally occupied, overwash is a hazardous process and there is a need to identify vulnerable areas. This study proposes a method to detect overwash-prone areas in the Ancao peninsula, Portugal, and eventually outlines a vulnerab...

Overwash is a natural process mainly related to storm events. The major cause is the run-up elevation over the dune crest. Consequently, there is a flow of water and sediment over the dune and the process can affect coastal environment, communities, and engineering structures. Nowadays, coastal regions are extensively occupied; therefore, in the co...