Variaciones espaciales y temporales de la deriva litoral, SE de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Abstract

The blocking of the longshore drift has caused significant impacts along the Mar del Plata and Necochea coastline, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In certain sectors, groyne construction is not giving the same results they did in the sixties to eighties. It was speculated that potential longshore drift has diminished. Several attempts have tried to estimate this transport, or at least the magnitude of waves and storms that seem to have a significant role with this transport. A compilation of scattered data about the subject confirms a minimum drift amount of 100,000 m3/year. However, certain issues should be considered. The number of storms per year (locally called “sudestadas”) has a significant weight in the northwards coastal transport. As wave statistics is completely dependent on the location where they are measured, wavebased models should be handled with much care. Groyne fields increase the density of rip currents and therefore are responsible for a reduction of the longshore transport. However, there are natural variations of the coastal dynamics and transport that are also explaining morphological changes that occurred during the Holocene.