¿Pueden los inviernos suaves recuperar el perfil de una playa?

Resumen

The well-known cycle of beach erosion/recovery is generally considered as occurring over a single climatic year, which means that the lack of complete recovery is often attributed to a medium-term sediment deficit, hence triggering the adoption of mitigation measures. In this work we suggest that this assumption may not be correct, as after energetic storms with return periods over 1 year, a similarly long period is needed for beaches to recover. A beach monitoring program has been developed in La Victoria beach (Cádiz) during four years, including two energetic winters followed by two years with mild winter seasons. Beach recovery did not occur along the first summer periods but during the last winter seasons. This is attributed to the low-energy character of Cadiz coast, where onshore sediment transport in summer is scarce, while swell waves during two consecutive mild winters have enough energy to produce onshore transport, hence generating beach recovery after storms.