Santander (EFE).- A study carried out by the Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria indicates that the beaches are “a dynamic natural defense” against flooding.
For this reason, “its disappearance, total or partial, temporary or chronic, will imply a loss of protection and an increase in risk for the coast.”
The work has been published in Nature Communications and featured on its Editor’s Highlights website as one of the top 50 in the area of climate change impacts.
Less beaches, more floods
The study concludes that the retreat of the coastline due to erosion leads to greater flooding, as has happened in the past after extreme storms.
For this reason, he insists on the “enormous benefits” of the beaches to face climate change, explained the director of Research of the Cantabrian institute, Íñigo Losada.
“Coasts that do not recover from the erosion suffered during large storms end up having greater flooding problems, which affects the area they protect,” underlines Losada, who assures that this has been the case of many Cantabrian beaches after the storms of 2014.
He also points to the economic impact of the loss of sandbanks, because he recognizes that they are “the fundamental resource of the tourism sector.”
Support for economic impact
Losada signs this study with three other experts, including the IHCantabria scientists Alexandra Toimil and Moisés Álvarez, as explained in a press release by the University of Cantabria, on which this institute depends.
The methodology applied in this study is based on obtaining the damage avoided by the protection provided by the beach against extreme events of waves and tides, as well as against the rise in mean sea level.
Its authors have calculated and compared flood damage in the case of beach erosion and assuming its maintenance, for which they have studied the case of Narrabeen, in Australia, a sandy area that has historical information on the evolution of the coast , for more than 40 years.
important feedback
Alejandra Toimil assures that this work reflects that in 2050 the benefits of maintaining the current coastline in terms of protection and recreation could be more than 150 times higher than the cost of its maintenance, through the regeneration of the beach.
For this reason, Íñigo Losada considers that it is necessary to have a “robust and complete” methodology to adequately calculate the function and value of beaches in adaptation to climate change, which will facilitate better criteria when investing in their maintenance. , has assured.
The entrance The beaches A natural defense of the coast? It was first published in EFE Noticias.