Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies

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Organizational Unit

Publications

Coastal management risk analysis of an embayed beach in Majorca island

Publication . Abreu, Tiago; Parreño-Mas, Benjamín; Pinto-Faria, José

Coastal erosion affects many coastlines around the world. This is a serious problem for the Balearic Islands, located at the western Mediterranean Sea, since the economy of the region largely relies on tourist activities along the sandy coastline. Therefore, coastal management strategies are required, particularly, in anthropized coasts as it is the case of Cala Millor beach (north-eastern Mallorca). A risk analysis for this micro-tidal sandy beach is performed in this paper. It is recognized that the beach suffers a persistent loss of sediments since its natural balance was changed due to anthropic activities that took place in that Spanish coast in the 1960s. Some solutions can be adopted to solve this problem, but it is important to be aware that, close to the shore, the seabed is covered by a native vegetation known as Posidonia Oceanica. This seagrass meadow plays an important role in this coastal system, being responsible by the lamination of the waves through energy dissipation, which are inextricably linked to coastal morphology. Therefore, any solution needs to address local specificities, and its consequent potential impact must be incorporated into the coastal risk management process. This study analyzes the failure modes identified according to the failure modes and effects analysis/failure mode, effects and criticality analysis, proposing a set of recommendations, in order to mitigate the occurrence of failure modes and to minimize risks.

2020Journal article

Open access

Nearshore Bathymetry Retrieval from Wave-Based Inversion for Video Imagery

Publication . Santos, Diogo; Abreu, Tiago; Silva, Paulo A.; Santos, Fábio; Baptista, Paulo

A wavelet-based method for bathymetry retrieval using a sequence of static images of the surface wave field, as obtained from video imagery, is proposed. Synthetic images of the water surface are generated from a numerical Boussinesq type model simulating the propagation of irregular waves. The spectral analysis is used to retrieve both wave periods and wavelengths by evaluating the spectral peaks in the time and spatial domains, respectively. The water depths are estimated using the linear dispersion relation and the results are validated with the model’s bathymetry. To verify the proposed methodology, 2D and 3D simulations considering effects of wave shoaling and refraction were performed for different sea conditions over different seafloors. The method’s ability to reproduce the original bathymetry is shown to be robust in intermediate and shallow waters, being also validated with a real case with images obtained with a shore-based video station. The main improvements of the new method compared to the consideration of a single image, as often used in Satellite Derived Bathymetry, is that the use of successive images enables the consideration of different wave periods, improving depth estimations and not requiring the use of subdomains or filters. This image processing methodology shows very positive results to provide bathymetry maps for shallow marine environments and can be useful to monitor the nearshore with high time- and space-resolution at low cost.

2022Journal article

Open access

Inter- and intra-annual variability of wave energy in Northern mainland Portugal: Application to the HiWave-5 project

Publication . Silva, Kássio; Abreu, Tiago; Oliveira, Tiago C.A.

Ocean wave energy capacity has been pointed out as one of the unexplored renewable energy sources to help reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, contributing to meeting the European Green Deal targets. However, despite the broad range of wave energy converter technologies already developed in a sustainable and economic model, there is still a lack of structured projects with high performance beyond the prototype stage. This paper investigates the potential for large-scale electricity production by the innovative HiWave-5 project in Aguçadoura (on the Northern coast of mainland Portugal). Wind–wave data (1950–2020) from the ERA5 reanalysis model are used to estimate inter- and intra-annual wave energy variability in Aguçadoura. ERA5 data is compared with field wind–wave data recorded between 2012–2019 near the study area. A mean wave power resource of 25.84 kW/m is obtained, for a possible device capture equal to 119.45 kW, despite a considerable intra-annual variability (ranging between 8.03 and 47.57 kW/m) and inter-annual variability (between 18.29 and 35.47 kW/m). Results show that local wave conditions do not substantially compromise the absolute performance of the device, given its survival limitations to adverse conditions. Considering a Levelized Cost of Energy of around €60/MWh, an annual investment of €62 885 is estimated, tending to meet targets for large sustainable electricity generation with the exponential growth expected until 2030, aided by the increase of devices in an energy farm concept. Wave power resources estimated using ERA5 data can underestimate about 7.20% values obtained with the wave buoy data.

2022Journal article

Open access

Retrieval of nearshore bathymetry from Sentinel-1 SAR data in high energetic wave coasts: The Portuguese case study

Publication . Santos, Diogo; Fernández-Fernández, Sandra; Abreu, Tiago; Silva, Paulo A.; Baptista, Paulo

The ability to derive bathymetry using remote sensing techniques enables rapid and cost-efficient mapping of large coastal areas. This contribution focuses on the application of both fast Fourier transform (FFT) and wavelet spectral analysis to obtain satellite-derived bathymetry maps of the nearshore, from freely available and easily accessible Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with 10 m pixel resolution. For this purpose, an extension of 220 km of the Portuguese west coast is analyzed using six satellite images obtained during the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. This extension allows to assess the applicability to coastal sectors with distinct geomorphological constraints. The peak wave periods corresponding to the acquisition of these images approximately range between 11 and 16 s. The spectral analysis is carried to estimate the water depths in near-shore water regions from the observed wavelength patterns. This signature of the sea surface, reflected in the variations of the wavelengths, is captured by the satellite images, making it possible to infer the underlying bathymetry. The bathymetric estimates obtained from both methodologies are compared with data extracted from the Coastal Nautical Charts provided by the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute. Wavelet image processing methodology shows very positive results, particularly extending the depth inversion limits of the FFT methodology, allowing to obtain bathymetric data for the entire shoaling zone where the wavelength patterns are visible. The achieved results also highlight that both FFT and wavelet methodologies are dependent from the seabed slope. For gentle slopes, the inferred depths from 2018 SAR images lead to relative errors between 2.5 and 20% when compared with the observed isobaths (10, 20 and 30 m). For steeper slopes, the errors are generally greater than 20% and increase with depth. The capabilities of the wavelet methodology to map shallow marine environments for high energetic coasts seems promising, regarding research purposes and management interventions.

2022Journal article

Restricted access