Sea-land limits: a case study

Abstract

The limits between sea and land were estimated at "Pulso" beach located in the Southeastern Brazilian shelf (φ = 23 • 33 17.4886 S; λ = 045 • 13 13.0504 W -WGS84), between the island of São Sebastião and the city of Ubatuba, SP, Brazil. The relative sea level of the year 1831 at "Pulso" beach, as per Brazilian law Number 9760 dated from 1946, was estimated and materialized. The retro-estimation allowed the demarcation of the Legal Sea-Land Limits at "Pulso" beach as per the terms of the law. The accuracy of the procedure for the transference of the longterm sea level from the research station of Ubatuba to "Pulso" beach was assessed by parallel work of geometrical leveling referred to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) geodetic network. The motivation, the hypotheses (Brest, Cananeia and IPCC) and the methods here used are described, together with a short history of the Legal Sea-Land Limits. The results indicated that the legal Sea-Land Limits at "Pulso" beach are well within the beach area. They were determined as per law 9760, and there is the need to reactivate the national network of sea level gauge.

Anthropogenic impacts on Iberoamerican coastal areas: Historical processes, present challenges, and consequences for coastal zone management

“…A good review on the development of the concept of legal coastal area in Brazil has been provided by Mesquita et al (2011). According to these authors, the first regulation regarding the use of the coastal zone dates from 1710, when Brazil still belonged to the Portuguese.…”