Morfodinâmica da Praia da Barra do Ceará, Município de Fortaleza, Estado do Ceará, Brasil

Abstract

The coastal dynamics of Barra do Ceará beach, Ceará State, Brazil was studied by means of topographic-drawn profiles in the period from October, 1997 to October, 1998. The methodology developed by Wright & Short (1984) showed a predominance of the dissipative phase on station 1's profiles, and of the intermediate to dissipative phases on station 2's profiles from October to December, being the remaining months characterized by the intermediate phase. The dominant surf fol-lowed a sliding pattern and the wave's breaking height presented a small variation with values ranging from 0.20 m to 0.45 m, so that a negligible influence on beach profiles is thought to have occurred. The sediment balance of the profiles implied depositional and erosive features related to the high- and low-rain seasons, respectively. The application of the Ω theoretical and Ω field parameters entailed for station 1 dissi-pative morphologies followed by periods with either dissipative or intermediate ones, and for station 2, reflective morphologies. The sandy covering is characterized on station 1 by the gradation in the beach's grain size as expressed by the textural classes mean sand in the median and upper foreshores, coarse sand in the lower foreshore, and fine sand in the backshore. The transversal variation in grain size on station 2's profiles reveals the predominance of coarse sand in the upper foreshore, and of median and coarse sands in the remaining features of the beach profile.