BEACH RE-NOURISHMENT AT PLAYA DE VILLANANITOS, SPAIN

摘要

A beach re-nourishment project has been developed for the Spanish Coastal Authority following guidelines for littoral enhancement set by the Ministry of the Environment's coastal zone management plan. Located on the south-eastern coast of Spain, Playa de Villananitos is a 900-meter urban beach situated on the north shore of Mar Menor, one of Spain's largest coastal lagoons and a region visited by thousands of tourists all-year around. Originally a muddy beach due to its natural setting, Villananitos was filled with sand in 1993 as part of a local shore-enhancement program. Low quality, poorly-sorted sand was borrowed from the lagoon's bed deposits, dumped by trucks directly on the berm and spread out mechanically. Due to the high concentration of silt in this beach-fill, the northward sediment transport regime of the lagoon and the inherent low energy of the site, fine sediment and organic debris accumulated on the beach face, deteriorating beach quality for the last 10 years. Therefore, the main objective of our work was to develop an adequate engineering project in order to restore and improve beach characteristics at Villananitos for recreational purposes. If performed correctly, the proposed sediment "substitution" scheme could set a precedent for beach enhancement projects at low-energy areas dominated by depositional processes, where accretion is not desired or simply not allowed.