Análise da vulnerabilidade física à erosão costeira das praias de Bitupitá, Curimãs, Farol e Maceió - litoral noroeste do estado do Ceará

Abstract

The coastal zones of Ceará are areas of the state that are constantly changing, either by anthropic actions or by natural actions caused by the coastal dynamics, resulting in retrogradation or progression of the coastline. This work aims to provide a coastal management tool that allows the identification of critical sites, calculating the rate of physical vulnerability to erosion to which some coastal segments are subordinate.The research was carried out in the northwestern portion of the state of Ceará, comprising the beaches of Bitupitá and Curimãs in the city of Barroquinha, and the beaches of Maceió and Farol in the city of Camocim, focusing on changes in the coastline over four years (2011-2014). The methodology followed the proposal of the calculation of the vulnerability indexes. These indexes were calculated from the analysis of the variables: coastal morphology, presence of natural attributes, marine influence, coastal processes and anthropic factors. The research also had the technical-operational stage that consisted in the use of ArcGIS® software, with georreferencing of the scenes obtained from the RapidEye satellite network, application of DSAS software to perform the mapping of the coastline modification in the period analyzed and calculation of the rate of physical vulnerability to coastal erosion. The results obtained allowed to estimate the degree of vulnerability to erosion that the beaches under analysis are subject to, in order to provide an efficient coastal management tool.