Vulnerabilidade costeira da Praia da Caponga, litoral leste do Ceará

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to characterize the erosion and degradation processes in Caponga beach during a one year period, to analyze the vulnerability of this area and the impacts to the use, occupation and management of the Caponga shoreline. Distant approximately 64 km from Fortaleza, capital of Ceará, the beach of Caponga has undergone a wear and erosion process quite intense mainly in the last ten years. This fact underscores the importance in the short-term monitoring of this shoreline. The study area of this dissertation covered an area of approximately 2.5 km in length. The methods for analyzing the processes that govern the morphology of the beach over a year (from 2016 to 2017) consisted of a topographic survey, with a sampling grid of 8 transversal profiles along the coastline; collection and analysis of granulometric data of each monitoring and walking profile for the identification of the coastline in each field experiment. In addition to these methods, oceanographic and climatological data were integrated to determine the dominant flood processes in the area, in this case of collision, being of fundamental importance for understanding the erosive and prograding processes in the area. This research presents data that show a new pattern in the evolutionary process of Caponga beach,that identified areas of progression higher than eroded areas, even with a balance of phases in periods of rain and drought over a year. A perception of the type of use and occupation of the Caponga Beach coast, based on the concepts proposed by the Orla Project, was able to identify the most vulnerable areas along the beach strip for scenarios tendentious to erosive and progradative processes, becoming an important auxiliary tool in coastal management since it directly affects the economy, tourism and migration of the local population.