Beach litter distribution in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica

In the Antarctic Peninsula, most important activities are touristic visits, from the second half of the 20th Century, and scientific investigation linked to 75 research stations. Beach litter content/abundance was investigated at 17 beaches in Admiralty Bay (King George Island, Antarctica) and the type of plastic material was determined by Raman spectroscopy. An average value of 0.16 items m−1 was observed. Wood items consisted of processed wood fragments representing 47.27% of the total. Foam represented 21%, hard plastic pieces 9.68% (consisting of polyvinyl chloride or high density polyethylene), metal 3.37%, rubber fragments 2.81%, foamed plastic pieces 2.66% (composed by polystyrene), the rest of categories representing less than 2% of the total. Wood debris and metal are essentially remnant objects of ancient whaling activities and research expeditions, polyurethane and expanded polystyrene materials have different origins and hard plastic, rubber, paper/cardboard and paint fragments seem mostly linked to present research activities

Mangrove Forests Evolution and Threats in the Caribbean Sea of Colombia

Colombia has approximately 379,954 hectares of mangrove forests distributed along the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea coasts. Such forests are experiencing the highest annual rate of loss recorded in South America and, in the last three decades, approximately 40,000 hectares have been greatly affected by natural and, especially, human impacts. This study determined, by the use of Landsat multispectral satellite images, the evolution of three mangrove forests located in the Colombian Caribbean Sea: Malloquin, Totumo, and La Virgen swamps. Mangrove forest at Mallorquin Swamp recorded a loss of 15 ha in the period of 1985-2018, associated with alterations in forest hydrology, illegal logging, urban growth, and coastal erosion. Totumo Swamp lost 301 ha in the period 1985-2018 associated with changes in hydrological conditions, illegal logging, and increased agricultural and livestock uses. La Virgen Swamp presented a loss of 31 ha in the period of 2013-2018 that was linked to the construction of a roadway, alterations of hydrological conditions, illegal logging, and soil urbanization, mainly for tourist purposes. Although Colombian legislation has made efforts to protect mangrove ecosystems, human activities are the main cause of mangrove degradation, and thus it is mandatory for the local population to understand the value of the ecosystem services provided by mangroves

Real time monitoring system for the detection of saline wedge in the Magdalena River – Colombia

This article aims to socialize the results of the development and implementation of a system based on IOT for aquifers, with its application in the estuary of the Rio Magdalena in Colombia. The SISME software supports the identification processes of different factors that can influence the appearance of the saline wedge in the navigable channel of the river. These aspects bring about the improvement of maritime safety and, in turn, allow us to know different aspects related to behavior through continuous sensing of the river. This article shows both the characterization of this river as well as studies related to it and the location of the sensors and description of the software developed

Natural Processes and Human Actuations: Impacts on Mangrove Forests of South America

La gran relevancia de los bosques de manglar se debe a que estos ecosistemas son considerados entre aquellos más resilientes ante los efectos adversos ejercidos tanto por factores naturales como antrópicos y, por eso, cumplen un papel fundamental en la estrategia para la adaptación al cambio climático. A nivel global se calcula que los bosques de manglar cubren una superficie de unos 150.000 km2, un 11% (≈16.500 km2) de los cuales se encuentra en las costas del Pacifico y del Caribe de Sudamérica. A nivel mundial se han reportado ≈70 especies de manglar, diez de las cuales se encuentran en Sur América, siendo las más comunes: Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa y Conocarpus erectus. En cuanto a pérdidas de manglar, a nivel mundial se han estimado valores anuales del 0,16% entre 2000 y 2012, presentando América del Sur las tasas más bajas de deforestación en comparación con Asia, África, América del Norte y Central. En este trabajo se han descrito los efectos de los principales impactos naturales y antrópicos sobre los bosques de manglar reportando ejemplos de Sudamérica y de otros países. Entre los impactos naturales se han considerado los efectos de: i) la erosión crónica y ii) puntual del litoral (es decir debida a frentes fríos y ciclones tropicales), ambas afectan sobre todo la Rizophora mangle porque ésta se localiza en la zona más próxima al mar mientras que los fuertes vientos registrados durante los huracanes (sobre todo de categoría >3 de la escala Saffir-Simpson) afectan esencialmente tanto R. Mangle como A. germinans, y iii) los efectos de fenómenos climáticos como “El Niño” y “La Niña” que producen variaciones de la salinidad intersticial del suelo y, por ende, condicionan la predominancia de una especie u otra. Entre los impactos antrópicos se ha descrito esencialmente la deforestación, con especial atención a la tala ilegal que, en la parte norte del Caribe colombiano, afecta principalmente L. racemosa, cuya madera es utilizada por las poblaciones locales para la construcción en las playas de cabañas para los turistas.The great importance of mangroves’ forest is linked to their capacity of resilience against natural and human impacts, this way playing a determinant function in the adaptation to climatic change related processes. At global scale, mangroves’ forests cover an area of 150,000 km2, 11% (≈16,500 km2) of them being located along the Pa-cific and Caribbean coasts of South America. About 70 species of mangroves exist around the World with 10 observed in South America, among them the most relevant are: Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa and Conocarpus erectus. Concerning man-groves’ cover loss, at global scale, an annual rate of 0.16% was observed between 2000 and 2012 with lower rates recorded in South America respect to Asia, Africa, North and Central America. This paper analyses the main effects of natural and human impacts on mangroves’ forests by means of examples from South America and several other countries. Concerning natural impacts special attention was devoted to: i) constant and ii) specific erosion processes (related to storms and tropical cyclones), both of them essentially affect Rizophora mangle since this specie occurs at the shoreline meanwhile strong winds recorded during hurricanes (with a category > 3 of the Saffir-Simpson scale) especially affects R. mangle and A. germinans, and iii) the effects of climatic phenomena such as “El Niño” and “La Niña” that produce variations in soil salinity that determinates the establishment and growth of a mangrove’s specie or an other. Concerning human impacts special attention was paid to illegal logging that, in the Northern Caribbean of Colombian coast essentially affectes L. racemosa, which wood is used by local population to build up cabins on the beaches for tourist purposes

Eventos Naturales y Actuaciones Antrópicas: Impactos sobre los Bosques de Manglar de América del Sur

The great importance of mangroves’ forest is linked to their capacity of resilience against natural and human impacts, this way playing a determinant function in the adaptation to climatic change related processes. At global scale, mangroves’ forests cover an area of 150,000 km2, 11% (≈16,500 km2) of them being located along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of South America. About 70 species of mangroves exist around the World with 10 observed in South America, among them the most relevant are: Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa and Conocarpus erectus. Concerning mangroves’ cover loss, at global scale, an annual rate of 0.16% was observed between 2000 and 2012 with lower rates recorded in South America respect to Asia, Africa, North and Central America. This paper analyses the main effects of natural and human impacts on mangroves’ forests by means of examples from South America and several other countries. Concerning natural impacts special attention was devoted to: i) constant and ii) specific erosion processes (related to storms and tropical cyclones), both of them essentially affect Rizophora mangle since this specie occurs at the shoreline meanwhile strong winds recorded during hurricanes (with a category > 3 of the Saffir-Simpson scale) especially affects R. mangle and A. germinans, and iii) the effects of climatic phenomena such as “El Niño” and “La Niña” that produce variations in soil salinity that determinates the establishment and growth of a mangrove’s specie or an other. Concerning human impacts special attention was paid to illegal logging that, in the Northern Caribbean of Colombian coast essentially affectes L. racemosa, which wood is used by local population to build up cabins on the beaches for tourist purposes.La gran relevancia de los bosques de manglar se debe a que estos ecosistemas son considerados entre aquellos más resilientes ante los efectos adversos ejercidos tanto por factores naturales como antrópicos y, por eso, cumplen un papel fundamental en la estrategia para la adaptación al cambio climático. A nivel global se calcula que los bosques de manglar cubren una superficie de unos 150.000 km2, un 11% (≈16.500 km2) de los cuales se encuentra en las costas del Pacifico y del Caribe de Sudamérica. A nivel mundial se han reportado ≈70 especies de manglar, diez de las cuales se encuentran en Sur América, siendo las más comunes: Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa y Conocarpus erectus. En cuanto a pérdidas de manglar, a nivel mundial se han estimado valores anuales del 0,16% entre 2000 y 2012, presentando América del Sur las tasas más bajas de deforestación en comparación con Asia, África, América del Norte y Central. En este trabajo se han descrito los efectos de los principales impactos naturales y antrópicos sobre los bosques de manglar reportando ejemplos de Sudamérica y de otros países. Entre los impactos naturales se han considerado los efectos de: i) la erosión crónica y ii) puntual del litoral (es decir debida a frentes fríos y ciclones tropicales), ambas afectan sobre todo la Rizophora mangle porque ésta se localiza en la zona más próxima al mar mientras que los fuertes vientos registrados durante los huracanes (sobre todo de categoría >3 de la escala Saffir-Simpson) afectan esencialmente tanto R. Mangle como A. germinans, y iii) los efectos de fenómenos climáticos como “El Niño” y “La Niña” que producen variaciones de la salinidad intersticial del suelo y, por ende, condicionan la predominancia de una especie u otra. Entre los impactos antrópicos se ha descrito esencialmente la deforestación, con especial atención a la tala ilegal que, en la parte norte del Caribe colombiano, afecta principalmente L. racemosa, cuya madera es utilizada por las poblaciones locales para la construcción en las playas de cabañas para los turistas

Internet of things applied to aquifer monitoring systems: a survey

The interaction between the oceanic and continental basins has been of general interest among the scientific community of multiple disciplines, from the physical perspective of how the interaction of fresh and salt waters mutually modulate their hydrodynamic behavior, and how this in turn determines the transport of sediments, nutrients and other tracers, in addition to inducing changes in the morphodynamics of the river and / or coastal-oceanic zone. Due to the importance of technology for the prevention of different environmental phenomena, this article aims to show the systematic review of the literature about different applications that allow software and hardware interaction to support decision making in the sense of aquifers

SISME, estuarine monitoring system based on IOT and machine learning for the detection of salt wedge in aquifers: case study of the Magdalena river estuary

This article contains methods, results, and analysis agreed for the development of an application based on the internet of things and making use of machine learning techniques that serves as a support for the identification of the saline wedge in the Magdalena River estuary, Colombia. As a result of this investigation, the process of identifying the most suitable telecommunications architecture to be installed in the estuary is shown, as well as the characteristics of the software developed called SISME (Estuary Monitoring System), and the results obtained after the implementation of prediction techniques based on time series. This implementation supports the maritime security of the port of Barranquilla since it can support decision-making related to the estuary. This research is the result of the project “Implementation of a Wireless System of Temperature, Conductivity and Pressure Sensors to support the identification of the saline wedge and its impact on the maritime safety of the Magdalena River estuary”

Microbiological water quality and sources of contamination along the coast of the Department of Atlántico (Caribbean Sea of Colombia). Preliminary results

Microbiological sea water quality is a public health problem that has serious repercussions in the tourism and economy of Colombia. This study determines the concentrations of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Clostridium perfringens at eleven beach water points and seven streams along the coast of the Department of Atlántico, Colombia. In seawater, total E. coli, E. faecalis and C. perfringens concentrations were found between 16 and 572 cfu/100 mL, 7–450 cfu/100 ml and 2–125 cfu/100 ml, respectively. The highest counts were observed mainly on urbanised beaches and in correspondence with streams whose waters had a high concentration of faecal origin microorganisms, which represent a serious health risk factor for bathers. Relevant efforts have to be addressed to improve the microbiological quality of these beaches by the establishment of efficient wastewater management programs aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the local treatment plant and the control of illegal sewage pouring onto the coast

A Preliminary Approximation to Microbiological Beach Sand Quality along the Coast of the Department of Atlántico (Caribbean Sea of Colombia): Influence of the Magdalena River

Beaches represent important economic resources linked to “Sun, Sea and Sand” tourism and, therefore, their water quality constitutes an issue of great relevance especially in developing countries. The main objective of this work was to determine the microbial quality of beach sediments along the Caribbean coast of the Department of Atlántico (Colombia) and its relationships with the existence of local sources of contamination (e.g., streams containing wastewaters), beach exposition to waves, the quantity of beach visitors—which is reflected by beach typology (e.g., urban, rural, etc.), the presence of tourist activities/infrastructures and the beach sand sedimentological characteristics. Along the study area, samples of beach sediments were gathered in beach face and backshore areas at 11 sectors and the microbiological counts of three faecal indicator bacteria, i.e., Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp. and Clostridium perfringens, were determined. A homogeneous distribution was recorded along the coast of Escherichia coli and Clostridium perfringens in both beach face and backshore sediments, in the order of 5 and 2 log CFU/100 mL, respectively; Enterococcus spp. was, at places, not observed in backshore sediments. No relationships existed between, on one side, the counts of the faecal indicator bacteria considered and, on the other side, the presence of streams and tourist activities/infrastructures, beach typology, exposition to waves and the sedimentological characteristics of beach sands. Such results suggest a chronic contamination of beach face and backshore sediments linked to the heavily polluted sedimentological load of the Magdalena River

GIS applications for engineering.

En los últimos años la preocupación por la conservación y optimización de los recursos naturales y del medio ambiente, así como los demás problemas territoriales existentes, hacen necesario la recopilación, tratamiento y análisis de la información para el desarrollo de una investigación, que puede resultar laboriosa, compleja y costosa, es por esto que los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) han tomado gran relevancia al momento de analizar problemas relacionados con información espacial, ya que permiten la automatización, visualización y manipulación de datos geográficos, convirtiéndose en una herramienta fundamental para la toma de decisiones Los SIG además de efectuar operaciones de manera confiable, proveen al usuario la información relacionada con fenómenos espaciales, la cual es de gran importancia en el ámbito investigativo, teniendo en cuenta que gran parte de la información sobre recursos naturales y ambientales que se maneja está vinculada con la información geográfica o espacial. El presente libro es una compilación de resultados de investigaciones desarrolladas durante los años 2018 – 2019, enfocadas a las aplicaciones de los SIG en diversas áreas de la ingeniería civil.In recent years the concern for the conservation and optimization of natural resources and the environment, as well as existing territorial problems, make it necessary to collect, process and analyze information for the development of research, which can be laborious, complex and expensive, that is why Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have acquired significant relevance when analyzing problems related to spatial information, since they allow the automation, visualization and manipulation of geographic data, becoming a fundamental tool for the decision making. GIS, besides to performing operations reliably, provide the user with information related to spatial phenomena, which has great importance in the research field, considering that a large part of the information on natural and environmental resources that is handled is linked with geographic or spatial information. This book is a compilation of research results developed during the years 2018 - 2019, focused on the applications of GIS in various areas of civil engineering