Coastal dune management : the use of geographic information system (GIS) in the development of management plans in the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Constituídas por grandes acumulações de areia, as dunas frontais são feições naturais da maioria das praias arenosas. As áreas de dunas são consideradas Áreas de Proteção Permanente (APPs) no Brasil, e, para a conservação desses ambientes, faz-se necessário o estabelecimento de planos, programas e medidas governamentais orientados a disciplinar os seus usos e/ou manejos. O desenvolvimento de projetos para a gestão do sistema de dunas deve incluir um diagnóstico do ambiente (características naturais e o grau de intervenção humana), a tendência das mudanças e as ações para manutenção ou recuperação do sistema. O objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar a potencialidade do uso de um Sistema de Informações Geográficas (SIG) para o diagnóstico ambiental de dunas, bem como salientar a importância da integração de dados regionais em ambiente SIG, a fim de se obter melhores resultados para subsidiar a tomada de decisão na elaboração de planos de gestão para o Gerenciamento Costeiro Integrado, por meio de estudos de caso de duas cidades no litoral do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, sul do Brasil (municípios de Capão da Canoa e Arroio do Sal). O uso de um SIG permite atualizações em várias escalas de tempo e também a análise conjunta de múltiplos dados de diferentes fontes. Essas características auxiliam os trabalhos na região costeira, ambiente com uma grande dinâmica de formas e processos. Para a caracterização, o diagnóstico e o planejamento das áreas de estudo, dados primários e secundários das duas áreas foram coletados e integrados em ambiente SIG, e, assim, pôde-se dividir os ambientes em diferentes setores, possibilitando o planejamento das intervenções necessárias em cada um deles. A espacialização das intervenções sugeridas permitiu sua visualização em mapas, sendo esta informação inserida como um novo plano de informação no projeto em SIG. Algumas das intervenções sugeridas em alguns locais visando à manutenção/recuperação do sistema de dunas incluem: passagem de tubulações abaixo da crista da duna (para a passagem condicionada de cursos d’água), construção de passarelas onde a passagem de pedestres é intensa (para ordenar o acesso à praia), remoção de vegetação exótica etc. Os resultados obtidos demonstram a possibilidade do uso de um SIG nos estudos de gestão costeira, gerando bons resultados no diagnóstico e planejamento das duas áreas de estudo. Como produto final dos planos de manejo desenvolvidos, todos os dados coletados e gerados são disponibilizados em arquivos no formato SIG, bem como em formato de planilha, junto com o relatório descritivo. No âmbito municipal, as vantagens encontram-se na facilidade de armazenamento e disponibilização dos dados, além de proporcionar a fácil modificação destes e também o acompanhamento da evolução dos projetos. A utilização de SIG também pode promover e facilitar a troca de informações entre as instituições e, a longo prazo, pode permitir a integração de todas as informações em um único banco de dados, podendo auxiliar na tomada de decisão dos órgãos municipais, estadual e federal.Foredunes are geomorphological features present in most of the sand beaches around the world. Under the Brazilian law, dunes are considered Permanent Protection Areas and, for conservation of these environments, it is necessary the establishment of plans, programs and measures by the government to discipline their use and management requirements. The development of projects for dune system management should include an environmental diagnosis (natural characteristics and human intervention degree), the trend of changes and the actions for maintenance or recovery of the system. The aim of this work is to evidence the potential of using a Geographic Information System (GIS) for the environmental diagnosis of dunes, as well as stress the importance of regional data integration within a GIS, for the purpose of obtaining better results to support decision making in the development of management plans for integrated coastal zone management. Study cases of two coastal cities in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil (Capão da Canoa and Arroio do Sal cities), are shown. The use of GIS allows updates at several time scales and also the joint analysis of multiple data from different sources. These characteristics assist work in coastal zones, an environment with highly dynamic forms and processes. For the characterization, diagnosis and planning of the two study areas, primary and secondary data were collected. Secondary data consists of bibliographic and cartographic search, and remote sensing data. Primary data consists of field observations, control points collected with GPS, photographic records (beach access, watercourses, irregular occupation, beach uses, dune uses, etc.), topographic data and vegetation identification. After collection, data were inserted in data layers and integrated in the GIS project. Using geoprocessing tools it was possible to calculate areas, measure foredune width and delimit the boundaries of Permanent Protection areas (using distance criteria), leading to further information to be obtained/added in the GIS. Distance criteria for delimitation of Permanent Protection areas were based in the law of the state environmental agency (FEPAM). For the city of Capão da Canoa, increases in sea level caused by storm surge were modelled in the GIS, in order to identify foredune areas susceptible to degradation. Results showed that water courses that cross the dune system are the preferential erosion zones in storm surge events. An evaluation based in the mapped elements and field observations, allowed the assignment of a coastal vulnerability index to each 500 meters beach segment. The higher the vulnerability index, the greater the fragility of the dune system. The areas with the highest index are the ones in which greater efforts are required (interventions/management). In the studied areas, these indexes allowed the planning of interventions required for each beach sector. Both cities have an extensive shoreline and dune areas affected by erosion (caused by storm surge effects, displacement of watercourses, planting of exotic vegetation and lack of planning for the shoreline – with disordered use of this natural system). A well developed urban area is present in Capão da Canoa city, where a discontinuous and highly segmented dune area exists. Preserved sections occur mostly in the non-urban areas. In Arroio do Sal city, there is an extensive and well preserved shoreline and dune system. The major problems affecting dune system in this city are erosion by storm surge and planting of exotic vegetation. With the environmental diagnosis and the vulnerability index for each beach sector, management proposals in different sectors of the shoreline were performed, and spatialization of the suggested actions/interventions was implemented in the GIS. This spatialization allowed visualization of all the beach sectors in maps, and this information was also added to the GIS project as new data layers. For dune system integrity maintenance/recovery in some sectors, some of the suggested interventions include pipe passing under the frontal dune crest (for controlled passage of watercourses), construction of walkways where the crosswalk is very intense (ordering the access to the beach), removal of exotic vegetation, etc. The results demonstrate the possibility of using GIS in coastal management studies, showing good results in the diagnosis and planning of the two study areas. As a final product of the management plans developed, all the collected and generated data are provided in GIS file format and in spreadsheets in a PDF report. At the municipal level, the advantages are ease of storage and availability of data, facilitating data modification in case of scenario alteration for the shoreline. The use of a GIS can also promote and facilitate the exchange of information between institutions and, in the long term, can allow the integration of all information into a single database to assist in decision making at the municipal, state and federal agencies. Keywords: coastal management, geospatial technology, database, coastal modelling

VALIDATION OF THE DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (SRTM) WITH GNSS SURVEYING APPLIED TO THE MIRIM LAGOON HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

Between 2013 and 2014, a kinematic positioning based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) was carried out for this research work. This GNSS survey resulted in 275916 points with tridimensional coordinates in the cross-border basin area of 58205km2 called Mirim Lagoon Hydrographic Basin, located in south of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and west of Uruguay. This study aims at showing the methodology firstly and, furthermore, results regarding the validation of the vertical accuracy of the DEM SRTM through kinematic positioning by GNSS, in the Mirim Lagoon Hydrographic Basin region. Also, the GNSS surveying data was post-processed with the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) method, and the ellipsoidal height was converted into orthometric height through the software INTPT geoid. During this study, the geopotential model (EGM96) was used to transform altitude differences between two countries, Brazil and Uruguay. Results showed that the vertical mean absolute error of the DEM SRTM vary from 0.07m to ± 9.9m with average of -0.28 m. This vertical accuracy is better than the absolute vertical accuracy value of ±16m published in the SRTM data specification and validates the DEM SRTM

Use and application of geology and geomorphology for the environmental assessment of projects on the coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil: applied study case

La investigación expone la importancia de la información geológica y geomorfológica realizada para el estudio ambiental de un terminal pesquero en el Municipio de Passo de Torres, Estado de Santa Catarina-SC, Brasil. Es un trabajo de investigación aplicada que permitió identificar seis unidades geomorfológicas, la planicie y terraza lacustre, el paleo campo de dunas, los cordones litorales, las dunas regresivas y los paleocanales del río Mampituba. Asociadas a estas formas se identificaron unidades geológicas, tales como depósitos eólicos, de playas y aluviales holocénicos, depósitos de turbas del Holoceno, depósitos de playas y eólicos pleistocenos y basamento de la Serra Geral. La información de geomorfología y geología aplicada a la evaluación ambiental fue respaldada con bases de datos de COMPANHIA DE PESQUISAS DE RECURSOS MINERAIS (CPRM) y del INSTITUTO BRASILEÑO DE GEOGRAFÍA Y ESTADÍSTICA (IBGE), además de la validación del trabajo de terreno. A través del uso de técnicas de sensores remotos y la integración de datos con herramientas SIG, se realizó la identificación de las unidades descritas y la cartografía asociada en diferentes escalas, 1:50.000 para el municipio y 1:2.000 para el área del terminal pesquero a ser evaluado.Information about geology and geomorphological evolution of an area recognition parts of their spatial dynamics and climate evolution. The study aims at presenting the geological and geomorphological survey for terminal public fishing environmental licensing in Passo de Torres city, located in the coastal plain, southern state of Santa Catarina - SC, Brazil. This study was based on official work related to geology and geomorphology of the region, provided respectively by the Company of Mineral Resources Research (CPRM) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), associated with field surveys to corroborate with vectors forming the digital database. Six geomorphological units (plain lagoon, lagoon terrace, paleo dune, beach ridges, regressive lields dunes, Mampituba river paleochannel) and six geological units were identified (Holocene eolian deposits, Holocene beach deposits, Holocene alluvial deposits, Holocene peatland, Pleistocene beach deposits and eolian deposits, Serra Geral basement). Through the utilization of Remote Sensing techniques and data integration in GIS it was possible to identify and describe them in detail, representing them in maps at different scales (1:50,000 in city area and 1:2,000 in the fishing area) in order to assist the preparation of the Coastal Environmental Impact Report of the Public fishing terminal in Passo de Torres city, SC

Subsídios para o planejamento estratégico costeiro do município de Jaguaruna, Santa Catarina

The unplanned occupation of the Coastal Zone has promoted the replacement of the original natural environment by the anthropic environment. This transformation generates conditions that unbalance the Environmental Diversity (abiotic and biotic natures) and prejudice the anthropic environment. This problem tends to continue and worsen in small municipalities; as is the case of municipality of Jaguaruna, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The present paper presents the method of structuring the irst steps of a coastal strategic plan developed in Camacho Balneary/Jaguaruna through actions and scenarios of management based on conlict conditions mapping, the application of the Legal - Environmental Criticality Index (ICLA, in Portuguese), the paradigm of Geodiversity and the local sedimentary dynamics. In a Geographic Information System environment, the regionalization of the Environmental Diversity landscape was carried out by "map algebra" of abiotic and biotic information. After identifying and ranking the main conlict conditions by applying the ICLA, each conlict condition with an area over 1,000 m2 was evaluated. There were 71 conlict conditions, which cover 79.91% of the areas occupied with urban or agricultural activities. When comparing the results with the current management instruments, the main restrictions observed were: disrespect for legal and environmental constraints of occupation; poor sanitation; territory and urban zoning incoherent with the socio-spatial dynamics of Jaguaruna; lack of inancial investment; and insuicient technical staf

Subsídios para o planejamento estratégico costeiro do município de Jaguaruna, Santa Catarina

The unplanned occupation of the Coastal Zone has promoted the replacement of the original natural environment by the anthropic environment. This transformation generates conditions that unbalance the Environmental Diversity (abiotic and biotic natures) and prejudice the anthropic environment. This problem tends to continue and worsen in small municipalities; as is the case of municipality of Jaguaruna, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The present paper presents the method of structuring the first steps of a coastal strategic plan developed in Camacho Balneary/Jaguaruna through actions and scenarios of management based on conflict conditions mapping, the application of the Legal - Environmental Criticality Index (ICLA, in Portuguese), the paradigm of Geodiversity and the local sedimentary dynamics. In a Geographic Information System environment, the regionalization of the Environmental Diversity landscape was carried out by “map algebra” of abiotic and biotic information. After identifying and ranking the main conflict conditions by applying the ICLA, each conflict condition with an area over 1,000 m2 was evaluated. There were 71 conflict conditions, which cover 79.91% of the areas occupied with urban or agricultural activities. When comparing the results with the current management instruments, the main restrictions observed were: disrespect for legal and environmental constraints of occupation; poor sanitation; territory and urban zoning incoherent with the socio-spatial dynamics of Jaguaruna; lack of financial investment; and insufficient technical staff. The management scenarios allowed the design of three different types of intervention (medium term), which reflect different development proposals, for deliberation and implementation by public managers. The methodological proposal, combined with the incorporation of pre-existing management initiatives and plans, provided: the identification and hierarchy of conflict conditions in a simple and intelligible way; the proposition of objective management actions; the spatialization of trend scenarios and the continuity of pre-existing management initiatives.A ocupação sem planejamento da Zona Costeira tem promovido a substituição do ambiente natural original pelo ambiente antrópico, cuja implantação apresenta condições que desequilibram a Diversidade Ambiental (naturezas abiótica e biótica) e prejudicam o próprio ambiente antrópico. Essa problemática tende a continuar e se agravar em municípios pequenos, como é o caso de Jaguaruna/SC. O presente trabalho apresenta o método de estruturação das primeiras etapas de um planejamento estratégico costeiro desenvolvido no balneário Camacho/Jaguaruna por meio de ações e cenários de manejo baseados no mapeamento de condições de conflito, na aplicação do Índice de Criticidade Legal-Ambiental (ICLA), no paradigma da Geodiversidade e na dinâmica sedimentar. Em ambiente de Sistema de Informações Geográficas, foi realizada a regionalização paisagística da Diversidade Ambiental pelo cruzamento de informações das naturezas abiótica e biótica. Após a identificação e a hierarquização das principais condições de conflitos pela aplicação do ICLA, cada condição de conflito com área superior a 1.000 m2 foi avaliada. Foram encontradas 71 condições de conflito, as quais abrangem 79,91% das zonas ocupadas com atividades urbanas ou agrícolas. Ao confrontar os resultados com os instrumentos de gestão vigentes, as principais restrições observadas foram: desrespeito a condicionantes legais e ambientais de ocupação; saneamento básico deficiente; macrozoneamento e zoneamento urbano incoerentes com a dinâmica socioespacial do município; falta de investimento financeiro; e corpo técnico insuficiente. Os cenários de manejo permitiram projetar três tipos diferentes de intervenção (de médio prazo), que refletem distintas propostas de desenvolvimento, para deliberação e implementação por parte dos gestores públicos. A proposta metodológica, aliada à incorporação de diretrizes de outros instrumentos de gestão preexistentes, proporcionou: a identificação e a hierarquização de condições de conflito de forma simples e inteligível; a proposição de ações de manejo objetivas; a espacialização de cenários tendência e a continuidade de iniciativas de gestão preexistentes