Hazard, vulnerability and coastal erosion risk assessment in Necochea Municipality, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Abstract

This contribution determines the coastal erosion risk of Necochea and Quequén cities, Necochea Municipality, Buenos Aires Province (Argentina). Both risk components, hazard and vulnerability, were assessed by the construction of indices. The hazard index is composed of four indicators: the erosion or accretion rate, coastal geomorphology, storm waves effects, and sediment supply. The vulnerability index is comprised of land use/cover, demographic, life conditions, and work and consumption indicators, and includes population census data such as demographic, education, health, sanitary, economic, production, work and population exposure aspects. The analysis concluded that coastal erosion risk ranges from very low to high along the study area, Quequén yielding the highest values. Risk levels vary in both cities based on the uneven spatial distribution of hazard. The risk assessment developed herein constitutes a practical and adequate tool that can be utilized with other elements and tasks in the elaboration of a coastal management program.

Indicators in risk management: Are they a user-friendly interface between natural hazards and societal responses? Challenges and opportunities after UN Sendai conference in 2015

“…The hazard indicators related to coastlines are: geomorphology, erosion rate, sediment budget [55,59], coastal slope, as well as elevation and distance to the sea [56,57,58]. In addition, the indicators of coastal storm hazards are: storm waves effects [55], distance to sea [56,58], relative sea-level rise, mean tidal range, mean significant wave height [57], depth and extent of inundation and overwash [59], highest storm surge level, exceeding value of warning water level, and average slope of the storm surge landfall position [61]. Finally, hazard indicators could be even more specifically constructed, such as indicators of shoreline (the previous high tide high-water level, the wet/dry line or run-up maxima) [60].…”

“…On the other hand, the vulnerability indicators are social and demographic [55 -58], related to building and tax assessment [58], land use and cover [55,58], artificial beach nourishment and beach control structures [57], and finally experience and perception of risk, as well as the household and communal risk adaptation strategy [56].…”

“…The rest of the papers (16 of 35, 46%) consider both hazard and vulnerability. The most balanced studies are [55] and [77] with even distribution of social and environmental indicators, and one study [78] considers geomorphologic attributes of beach erosion vulnerability (three attributes) more than the social attributes (one attribute). If we consider our full sample of 68 studies, we again find a similar distribution of usage of social and natural indicators (light columns of Figure 2).…”

Assessment of Coastal Protection Based on Risk Maps: A Case Study on Yunlin Coast, Taiwan

“…Possible losses increase when vulnerability increases (Cutter, 1996) [8]. Different variables have been used to evaluate coastal vulnerability according to the research orientation and perspective, for example the effect of sea-level rise (Khouakhi et al, 2013; Ö zyurt and Ergin, 2010) , coastal erosion (Fitton et al, 2016;Merlotto, et al, 2016;Tarragoni et al, 2014) and sustainable development (Schernewski et al, 2014) [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Generally speaking, the variables can be categorized into geophysical, social, and socio-environmental contexts (Zanetti et al, 2016) [15].…”

The Study of the Coastal Management Criteria Based on Risk Assessmeant: A Case Study on Yunlin Coast, Taiwan

“…Possible losses increase when vulnerability increases (Cutter, 1996) [8]. Different variables have been used to evaluate coastal vulnerability according to the research orientation and perspective, for example the effect of sea-level rise (Khouakhi et al, 2013;Özyurt and Ergin, 2010), coastal erosion (Fitton et al, 2016;Merlotto, et al, 2016;Tarragoni et al, 2014), and sustainable development (Schernewski et al, 2014) [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Generally speaking, the variables can be categorized into geophysical, social, and socio-environmental contexts (Zanetti et al, 2016) [15].…”