Summary

The beaches considered in this project result exclusively from local wind generated waves in areas of restricted extension. Although the physical processes of wave generation and propagation and shoreline evolution are relatively well known from coastal areas, their occurrence in estuaries, lagoons and other systems of restricted fetch can be highly influenced by factors like shallow water conditions, tidal conditions and wind action. The merit of this project is the establishment of a methodology that can be generally applied to understand the physics of estuaries and other systems of restricted fetch in terms of wave generation and transformation and beach morphodynamics.

The work plan includes numerical modelling applications (wave generation and transformation, nearshore sediment transport and medium-term shoreline evolution models); field surveys for data acquisition, including morphological (topographic survey of cross-shore beach profiles) and hydrodynamic (wind, waves and currents) data sets; development of analytical formulations to predict beach evolution.

This project will provide a general better understanding of the physics of systems of restricted fetch, particularly for the study areas Tagus Estuary – Alfeite Beach and Ria Formosa – Ancão Peninsula, through a more accurate evaluation of the physical processes involved in the phenomenon of wave generation and transformation and through the improvement on predicting beach morphological evolution at different time scales. The proposed methodology can be used as a prognostic tool to support management decisions for systems of restricted fetch, particularly to evaluate impacts resulting from extreme climate events and human intervention.

Tagus Estuary		Alfeite Beach
Ria Formosa		Ancão Peninsula

Objectives

• Simulation and prediction of waves in the shallow water conditions of estuaries and other systems of restricted fetch. Evaluation of the contribution of the physical processes responsible for wave generation and transformation in the above systems: generation, propagation, dissipation and nonlinear wave-wave and wave-current interactions. Comparative analysis of different methodologies to predict the wave climate in estuaries and other systems of restricted fetch.
• Definition of evolutionary stages and trends in beaches of restricted fetch, at different time-scales, and their relationship with the physical processes.
• Prediction of beach evolution in areas of restricted fetch through the application of nearshore sediment transport numerical models (morphostatic and morphodynamic), analytical formulations and experimental results. Application to the inner Tagus estuary and Ria Formosa.
• Establishment of a new methodology for the study of beach morphological evolution in areas of restricted fetch.

Field surveys

• Praia do Alfeite
• Península do Ancão

Selected Results

• Characterization of Tagus estuarine beaches (in Portuguese)
• Origin and characterization of Tagus beach sediments
• Morphological evolution of Alfeite beach (Tagus Estuary) (in Portuguese)
• Application of software Digital Shoreline System to Alfeite beach (in Portuguese)
• Implementation of GIS portal for dissemination of the project results (in Portuguese)
• Forecast the wave climate in Tagus estuary (in Portuguese)
• Longshore sediment transport of an estuarine beach: numerical investigation
• Evolution of a Restricted Fetch Environment: the case of Ria Formosa Backbarrier

Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Freire, P., Taborda, R., Silva, Ana M., 2007, Sedimentary Characterization of Tagus Estuarine Beaches (Portugal). A contribution to the sediment budget assessment. J Soils Sediments, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1065/jss2007.08.243.
• Bertin, X., Castelle, B., Anfuso, G., Ferreira, O., 2007. Improvement of sand activation depth prediction under conditions of oblique wave breaking. Geo-Mar Lett, DOI 10.1007/s00367-007-0090-2.

Conference Papers

• Capitão, R.; Santos, J.A.; Coli, A.B.; Fortes, C.J.E.M (2007). An application and comparison with measured data of SWAN model on the wave prediction on the Tagus Estuary (Poster). 9th Spanish Days on Coastal and Port Engineering. San Sebastian, Spain, 29 to 30 May 2007 (in Spanish).
• Carrasco, A.R., Ferreira, Ó., Matias, A., Dias, J.A., 2007. Backbarrier Evolution and Complete Overwash Occurrence. Proceedings of the Coastal Sediments’07 Conference. New Orleans, May 2007, 2084- 2096.
• Fortes, C.J; Coli, A.B.; Capitão, R.; Santos, J.A. (2007). Evaluation of SWAN model by comparing the model's sea wave predictions with measured wave data. 5th Portuguese Days on Coastal and Port Engineering. Lisbon. 11 to 12 October 2007 (in Portuguese).
• Oliveira, F.S.B.F., Vargas, C.I.C., and Coli, A.B., 2007, Evaluating the geomorphologic stability of an estuarine sandy beach. Book of Abstracts of International Symposium on Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Arendal, Norway, pp. 101.
• Santos, J.A.; Coli, A.B.; Capitão, R.; Fortes, C.J.; (2007). Wave forecast at the Tagus estuary by using the SWAN model. In 17th ISOPE 2007, Lisbon, Portugal, 1 to 6 July 2007.
• Freire, P., Taborda, R., Andrade, C., 2006. Characterization of Tagus estuarine beaches. 8º Congresso da Água, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, 13-17 March 2006, APRH (em CD-ROM) (in Portuguese).
• Freire, P., Taborda, R., Silva, A.M., Valente, C., 2006. Sediment characterization of Tagus estuarine beaches (Portugal). SedNet Conference, "Sediment key-issues between the river and the sea”, 23-24 November 2006, Venice, Italy.
• Oliveira, F.S.B.F., Vargas, C.I.C., Coli, A.B., 2006. Longshore sediment transport of an estuarine beach: numerical investigation. Proceedings of 5th Symposium on the Atlantic Iberian Margin, Aveiro, Portugal, pp. 157-158.
• Santos, J. A., Capitão, R., Coli, A. B., Fortes, C. J., Freire, P., 2006. Forecast the wave climate in Tagus estuary using SWAN model. 8º Congresso da Água, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, 13-17 March 2006, APRH (em CD-ROM) (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A. M., Taborda, R., 2006. Morphodynamics of estuarine beaches. Implementation of GIS portal for results dissemination. ESIG, IX Encontro de Utilizadores de Informação Geográfica. USIG, Tagus Park, Portugal, 15-17 November 2006 (in Portuguese).
• Valente, C., Freire, P., Taborda, R., 2006. Mesoscale morphological evolution of Alfeite estuarine beach. Livro de Resumos do VII Congresso Nacional de Geologia, 29 June 13 July 2006, Pólo de Estremoz da Universidade de Évora. Volume II: 437-440 (in Portuguese).
• Valente, C., Taborda, R., Freire, P., 2006. Digital Shoreline System: application to Alfeite beach. EUE 2006 – 4º Encontro de Utilizadores ESRI, LNEC, 8 and 9 of March 2006 (in Portuguese).

Technical and Scientific Reports

• Silva, A., Taborda, P., Freire, P., 2007. Field survey BERNA XIII – 12/01/2007. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, January 2007, 12 pp (in Portuguese).
• Taborda, P., Freire, P., 2007. Field survey BERNA XVII – 09/07/2007. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, July 2007, 9 pp.
• Taborda, P., Silva, A., Freire, P., 2007. Field survey BERNA XVIII – 11/07/2007. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, July 2007, 13 pp.
• Carrasco, A. R., 2005. Field survey report. Survey BERNA II. Relatório CIACOMAR 04/05, Olhão, 10 pp (in Portuguese).
• Carrasco, A. R., Silva, A., Taborda, R., 2006. Field survey report. Survey BERNONA. Relatório CIACOMAR 01/06, Olhão, 24 pp (in Portuguese).
• Ciavola, P., Taborda, R., Armaroli, C., Caleffi, S., Castiglione, E., Silva, A., 2006. Technical Report. Porto Recanati Multi-Tarcer Experiment 27/11/2006 03/12/2006. BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Ferrara, December 2006, 31 pp.
• Silva, A., Carrasco, A. R., Remédio, A., Mendes, T., Taborda, R., Freire, P., 2005. Field survey BERNA II 21/07/2005. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, July 2005, 29 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Freire, P., Valente, C., 2006. Field survey BERNA VI – 01/02/2006. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, February 2006, 11 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Remédio, A., Mendes, T., Taborda, R., Freire, P., 2005. Field survey BERNA I 12/04/2005. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, April 2005, 18 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., 2006. Field survey BERNA X – 09/10/2006. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, October 2006, 12 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., Capitão, R., 2006. Technical Report. Verification of pressure transducers operation – 23/10/2006. BERNA: Beach Evolution in Áreas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, October 2006, 12 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., Freire, P., 2006. Field survey BERNA V 29/01/2006. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, February 2006, 15 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., Freire, P., 2006. Field survey BERNA VIII 06/09/2006. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, September 2006, 11 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., Freire, P., Valente, C., 2005. Field survey BERNA IV 17/11/2005. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, November 2005, 14 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., Freire, P., Valente, C., 2006. Field survey BERNA VII 15/05/2006. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, June 2006, 114 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Taborda, R., Freire, P., Vargas, C., 2006. Field survey BERNA XI – 07/11/2006. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, December 2006, 14 pp (in Portuguese).
• Silva, A., Valente, C., 2005. Field survey BERNA III 07/11/2005. Report of the project BERNA: Beach Evolution in Areas of Restricted Fetch: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. GEOFCUL, LNEC, Lisboa, November 2005, 11 pp (in Portuguese).
• Valente, C., 2006. Morphological and sedimentary evolution of estuarine beaches. Report of the Post-Graduation Course in Applied Geology. Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, July 2006, 81 pp (in Portuguese).
• Vargas, C.I.C., 2006. Morphodynamic analysis of an estuarine beach. Technical report of the Project BERNA (POCTI/CTA/45431/2002), 64 pp (in Portuguese).
• Vargas, C.I.C., 2006. Effect of wave theory in sediment transport. Technical report of the Project BERNA (POCTI/CTA/45431/2002), 127 pp (in Portuguese).
• Thesis
• Carrasco, A. R., 2006. Evolution of a Restricted Fetch Environment: the case of Ria Formosa Backbarrier, Algarve, Portugal. MSc Thesis, University of Plymouth, Faculty of Science, UK, July 2006.

Photos

Alfeite Beach (Tagus Estuary)		Ancão Península (Ria Formosa)

Team
LNEC: Paula Freire, Filipa Oliveira, Conceição Fortes, Rui Capitão, João Alfredo dos Santos, Alexandre Coli
University of Lisbon: Rui Taborda
University of the Algarve: Óscar Ferreira

Outros Projectos

• SATUrN – Sand Transport in surface waters: an uncertainty analysis
• Dynamics of estuaries and lagoons
• Beach morphodynamics
• GEODYN - Geodynamics - Present to Past
• LOCO - Wave-group propagation and long waves at the coast