Vulnerability assessment of a retreating coast in SW Spain

The present study assesses coastal vulnerability to erosion processes along a 23-km-long coastal sector that presents different morphological features and grades of human occupation. Seven photogrammetric flights, at different scales, were used for reconstructing the coastal evolution from 1956 to 2001. Several sources were compiled to assess human activities and land uses in the coastal zones that were mapped and divided into four different types. As a further step, coastal vulnerability to erosion was assessed combining the potential coastal retreat with land-use type. More than one third of the studied coast presents a very high–medium risk level and many human structures and activities at Sanlúcar village and La Ballena beach will be threatened by erosional processes in the near future.