Decadal evolution of coastline armouring along the Mediterranean Andalusia littoral (South of Spain)

Abstract Emplacement of hard coastal defence structures, such as seawalls, revetments, groins and breakwaters, or even ports, harbours and marinas, is commonly known as coastline armouring. This paper deals with coastal armouring evolution along the 546 km Mediterranean coast of Andalusia (Spain). It is based on photo interpretation and GIS tools, which have been employed to map coastal structure emplacement and evolution by analysis of 1956, 1977, 2001 and 2010 aerial photos. Additionally the coefficient of infrastructural impact K , which represented the relation between the total length of maritime structures and the length of the study coastal section, was obtained - i.e. minimal at 0.0…