THE WIND TRANSPORT CONTRIBUTION IN THE PROCESS OF SHORELINE EVOLUTION

Abstract This paper evaluates the eolian transport importance for the morphological behavior of a 20 Km stretch on the coast of Ceará between the Ceará river mouth and the Cumbuco Beach. The research consisted of the comparison between the sand volume involved in the coastline migration between 1974 and 2001 and the dune formation potential that is based on the relationship developed by the formed angle between the coastline position and the eolian transport dominant direction. The resulting material volume from the coastline migration was calculated by multiplying the advanced or retreated area by the sum of the active berm height and the closing depth. The dune formation potential, calculated for each studied segment, demonstrated (1) to keep an excellent correlation with the measured volumes for the coastline migration and (2) that most of the segments have been submitted to a sedimentary deficit potential caused by the wind, excluding a few stretches where there is a beach feedback tendency by the eolian transport, through a 'bypass' process. The results have showed that the eolian activity may be fundamental for the coastline equilibrium, reinforcing, this way, the idea that the works involving the coastal dynamics need the eolian transport study so that they may appropriately represent the coastal dynamics of the studied area.