Understanding extreme Spanish coastal flood events

The Santa Irene flood event, at the end of October 1982, is one of the most dramatically widely reported flood events in Spain. Its renown is mainly due to the collapse of the Tous dam, but its main message is to be the paradigm of the incidence of the maritime/littoral weather and its temporal sea level rise by storm surge accompanying rain process on the coastal plains inland floods. Looking at damages the presentation analyzes the adapted measures from the point of view of the aims of the FP7 SMARTeST Project related to the Flood Resilience improvement in urban areas through looking for Technologies, Systems and Tools an appropriate "road to de market"

El problema del deslinde de la zona marítimo terrestre

Se aborda el origen y la realidad del demanio costero y de su deslinde respecto del resto de las tierras firmes; se reflexiona sobre la capacidad de la clasificación genética de Pedro Suarez Bores para ilustrarlo y determinarl

Coastal floods and decadal changes: the climate factor

Observation has widely shown for nearly all last century that the Spanish (Dynamic) Maritime Climate was following around 10 to 11 year cycles in its most significant figure, wind wave, despite it being better to register cycles of 20 to 22 years, in analogical way with the semi-diurnal and diurnal cycles of Cantabrian tides. Those cycles were soon linked to sun activity and, at the end of the century, the latter was related to the Solar System evolution. We know now that waves and storm surges are coupled and that (Dynamic) Maritime Climate forms part of a more complex “Thermal Machine” including Hydrological cycle. The analysis of coastal floods could so facilitate the extension of that experience. According to their immediate cause, simple flood are usually sorted out into flash, pluvial, fluvial, groundwater and coastal types, considering the last as caused by sea waters. But the fact is that most of coastal floods are the result of the concomitance of several former simple types. Actually, the several Southeastern Mediterranean coastal flood events show to be the result of the superposition within the coastal zone of flash, fluvial, pluvial and groundwater flood types under boundary condition imposed by the concomitant storm sea level rise. This work shall be regarded as an attempt to clarify that cyclic experience, through an in-depth review of a past flood events in Valencia (Turia and Júcar basins), as in Murcia (Segura’s) as well

Adaptabilidad al Cambio Climático: Las inundaciones y la Adaptación Urbana. El fenómeno de la inundación

Análisis del clima y el territorio, los factores oceánicos, los factores humanos, los tipos de inundaciones urbanas y sus daños, recuperación, adaptación y resilienci

Coastal Factors and Coastal Inland. Flooding Managemenet

Siguiendo el proyecto europeo Smartest se plantea el problema de las inundaciones y su gestión en zonas urbanas en las proximidades de la cost

Geometric detached breakwaters indicators on the Spanish North East coastline

Many beaches have been eroded and the obvious environmental and landscape degradation of many coastal stretches are problems that coastal engineers are spending time solving. With this in mind, different protection methods have been used over time, most on the basis of the artificial nourishment of beaches and the building structures such as groynes and detached breakwaters. Detached breakwaters are artificial structures, generally parallel to the coastline, inspired by the working of natural formations, protecting a certain stretch from wave action and being able to create accretion areas. This is why these structures have been in general use, with different results, since the 1970s in countries such as Japan, the United States, Israel, Spain, Italy, and Australia. The study undertaken for this research focuses precisely on this type of structure, with the purpose of providing an overall view of the state of the art in this field. In addition, the effects of a detached breakwater on the shoreline for a series of real cases on the Spanish coastline were analysed to check whether the empirical relations given by different researchers for classifying the shoreline’s type of response were fulfilled for them all or not. This study only takes formulas on the basis of the geometrical characteristics of breakwaters into consideration as being the most used by design engineers for predesigning a construction. All the formulas studied are based on the nondimensional B/X monomial, which is a ratio between the two most important geometric breakwater parameters (the length of the detached breakwater, B, and its distance to the initial coastline, X), so the result of this work led us to propose the following geometric model for the case of the Catalonian coastline: tombolo formation if B/X _ 1.3; salient formation if 1.3 _ B/X _ 0.5; limited shore response if 0.5 _ B/X

Looking for a more comprehensive approach

The necessity/convenience for improving accuracy in determining the flood frequency is widely accepted further than among hydrologists, and is increasingly deepened in relationship with the statement of different thresholds related to the respective management systems. And both Scientific and Management Communities fully accept the necessity of living with determined levels of flood risk. Most of the approaches for “Advancing Methods” improving concentrate on the statistical ways, even since Climate in fact is not a Stationary process. The question is here reflected since the SMARTeST research and final highlights, policy and recommendations. The paper looks at a better agreement between Hydrology and the whole Climate as the result of the Global Thermal Machine and takes mainly into account a historical approach, trying to show the necessity of a wider collection and analysis of climate data for statistical approaches

Coastal erosion. Geometric detached breakwaters indicators for preventing the shoreline erosion. Fringe session

The coastline today is undoubtedly in a precarious situation. Many beaches are suffering from erosion and the obvious environmental and landscape degradation of many coastal stretches are problems. Coastal Engineers are spending time in solving. With this in mind, different protection methods have been used over time, most based on the artificial nourishment of beaches and on building structures such as groynes and detached breakwaters. Detached breakwaters are artificial structures, generally parallel to the coastline, inspired on the working of natural formations, protecting a certain stretch from wave action and being able to create accretion areas. This is why these structures have been in general use with different results, since the 1970s, in countries such as Japan, the USA, Israel, Spain, Italy and Australia. The study undertaken for this research centres precisely on this type of structure, with the purpose of providing an overall view of the state-of-the-art in this field and a conceptual model for preventing the coastal erosion. In addition, the effects of a detached breakwater on the shoreline for a series of prototypes on the Spanish coastline and whether the empirical relations given by different researchers for classifying the shoreline’s type of response were fulfilled for them all or not, were researched. There sult of this work showed how sensitive the shore’s response is in relation to the non-dimensional B/X monomial (where B is the length of the detached breakwater and X its distance to the initial coastline) and the range of figures proposed for classifying the shore’s response based on that monomial

Diseño funcional y ambiental de diques exentos de baja cota de coronación

La costa constituye una estrecha y fuertemente presionada franja, sometida a grandes desequilibrios como consecuencia de múltiples y variadas causas: oleaje, mareas y corrientes, construcción de obras marítimas que interrumpen las corrientes litorales y el transporte de sedimentos, subida del nivel medio del mar, desarrollo de áreas costeras y urbanismo masivo en la zona activa de las playas, etc. Todo ello provoca la erosión de un gran número de playas, así como su degradación ambiental y paisajística. Esta situación precaria del litoral constituye, hoy en día, un serio y preocupante problema, al que los Ingenieros de Costas dedican su actividad, en busca de soluciones que garanticen su estabilidad. Con este fin, se han venido utilizando, a lo largo del tiempo, diferentes métodos de protección, basados la mayoría de ellos en la construcción de obras marítimas, de entre las que hay que destacar los diques exentos. La investigación llevada a cabo y que se presenta en este artículo se centra precisamente en este tipo de obras costeras. Plantea como objetivo principal el desarrollo de un método de diseño funcional y ambiental (no estructural) que permita definir las características fundamentales de un dique exento en función del efecto que se quiera inducir en la costa, satisfaciendo las demandas sociales y preservando o mejorando la calidad del medio ambiente litoral. Además, se busca la aplicabilidad general del método mediante la consideración de relaciones entre variables de distinta naturaleza (climáticas, geomorfológicas y geométricas) que influyen en los cambios experimentados en la costa tras la construcción del dique exento. El estudio de las relaciones entre las distintas variables se realiza sobre los datos de una base de diecinueve diques exentos reales, existentes en el litoral mediterráneo español, y siguiendo una metodología basada en el planteamiento de monomios adimensionales y en la búsqueda de relaciones de dependencia entre ellos. Finalmente, la discusión de los resultados obtenidos conduce a la propuesta de un método de diseño de diques exentos, que considera algunas de las relaciones gráficas encontradas entre las variables estudiadas y con el que se consigue el objetivo principal anteriormente expuesto

Why offshore wind energy?

At the beginning of 2010, only 2000 wind megawatts had been installed offshore. Although the first offshore wind farm experiment took place in 1990, most of the facilities built up to now have been pilot projects. Then, offshore wind power can be considered as an incipient market. However, just at this moment, the growth of this technology finally seems to be happening, being several countries at the top of its development (the United Kingdom, Denmark, Holland, Sweden and Germany). This current situation, the raw materials problems and the general commitments to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases are leading to predict a promising future for this technology. This paper deals with a brief revision of the state of the art of offshore wind power, followed by a critical discussion about the causes of the recently growth that is currently happening. The discussion is based on the comparison of offshore wind energy with other renewable energies (like onshore wind, marine hydrodynamics, hydraulic, solar, etc.) and even with conventional powe