Monitoring shoreline changes at Cancun beach, Mexico: Effects of hurricane Wilma
Por:
Silva-Casarín R., Mariño-Tapia I., Enríquez-Ortiz C., Mendoza-Baldwin E., Escalante-Mancera E., Ruiz-Renteria F.
Publicada:
1 ene 2007
Resumen:
Cancun beach is one of Mexico's most important coastal resorts and is of paramount importance for the local and national economies. Following the tendency of the time (1970's and 80's), this very large strip-development was built along 17km of coastal dunes on a barrier island on the Mexican Caribbean coast. A very large development, the concentration of buildings in a limited space and the unavailability of sand reserves, has meant that the extreme weather events that occur in the region (hurricanes) have permanently damaged the beach. The effects of hurricane Gilbert in 1988 were especially harmful, Ivan in 2004 and Emily in July 2005 weakened the system, but Wilma (October 2005) caused extreme damage to the beach and coastal infrastructure. As a consequence of the hurricanes prior to Wilma and chronic shoreline recession, the beach had been experiencing receding rates of 2 m/year since 1984. This paper describes the shoreline monitoring system implemented in Cancun in May 2005 which aims to better understand shoreline changes using field data, satellite images, video monitoring, and numerical modeling. The results focus on the effects hurricane Wilma had on the beach. Hurricane-driven erosion presented non-uniform changes along the beach with pronounced accretion in the southern section (15 m beach width gain), and intercalated zones of beach disappearance and eroded but existent beach (?15 m wide). © 2007 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Filiaciones:
Silva-Casarín R.:
Instituto de Ingeniería, National University of Mexico, Cd. Universitaria, 04510 D.F., Mexico
Mariño-Tapia I.:
Coastal Processes Lab., CINVESTAV Mérida, Km 6 Antigua Carretera Progreso Mérida, Yuc., Mexico
Enríquez-Ortiz C.:
Coastal Processes Lab., CINVESTAV Mérida, Km 6 Antigua Carretera Progreso Mérida, Yuc., Mexico
Mendoza-Baldwin E.:
Instituto de Ingeniería, National University of Mexico, Cd. Universitaria, 04510 D.F., Mexico
Escalante-Mancera E.:
ICMyL, Nacional University of Mexico, Av. Niños Héroes s/n, 77580 Puerto Morelos, Q. Roo, Mexico
Ruiz-Renteria F.:
ICMyL, Nacional University of Mexico, Av. Niños Héroes s/n, 77580 Puerto Morelos, Q. Roo, Mexico
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