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The Beaches of Ceará

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Brazilian Beach Systems

Part of the book series: Coastal Research Library ((COASTALRL,volume 17))

Abstract

The coastal zone of Ceara State, in Northeastern Brazil, extends for 573 km in a SE- NW direction. It is predominantly composed of sandy sediments of Upper Tertiary-Quaternary age with several generations of Pleistocene transgressive dunes, together with beaches, estuarine plains and localized occurrences of cliffs. The Precambrian rocks also occur on some beaches. The climate is semi-arid tropical and the rivers only flow into the sea during the rainy season. The dunes, beaches and estuary margins have experienced serious problems derived from the loss of sand material that have been taken to be used in coastal engineering, edifications and natural environmental degradation processes concerned to the sediment budget. In this context, this chapter focuses the description of the morphodynamics characteristics of the beaches of Ceara State, highlighting the factors controlling spatial and temporal processes, as well as discussing the impacts, potential uses and limitations of these areas. The results indicate that today this coastal erosion, either natural or induced by man, is perceived as the most significant threat to maintaining services in areas that depend upon tourism, traditional economic activities, housing and other pertinent uses of the beaches. It has been pointed out that the natural and human impacts represent the main and outstanding challenges for dwellers and the coastal managers who need to find out the new ways of living and occupation, includes redesigning the processes of house constructions and keeping up with minimizing the impacts. Then, the main actions that deal with the use and abuse of this littoral are discussed in this chapter. The environmental problems have to be strictly controlled, particularly stabilization of the mobile dune and preventing development of cliffs and headlands.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciências do Mar-LABOMAR- Federal University of Ceará, Av.Abolição No. 3207, Meireles, 60165-081, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Lidriana de Souza Pinheiro

  2. Laboratório de Geologia e Geomorfologia Costeira e Oceânica-LGCO, Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Av. Dr. Silas Munguba, 1700, Campus do Itaperi, 60.714.903, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Jáder Onofre de Morais

  3. LABOMAR-Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Av.Abolição No. 3207, Meireles, 60165-081, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Luis Parente Maia

Authors
  1. Lidriana de Souza Pinheiro
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  2. Jáder Onofre de Morais
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  3. Luis Parente Maia
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Correspondence to Lidriana de Souza Pinheiro .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew D. Short

  2. Departamento de Geociências, Laboratório de Oceanografia Costeira, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Antonio Henrique da F. Klein

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de Souza Pinheiro, L., de Morais, J.O., Maia, L.P. (2016). The Beaches of Ceará. In: Short, A., Klein, A. (eds) Brazilian Beach Systems. Coastal Research Library, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30394-9_7

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