Assessing Coastal Vulnerability in Yucatan (Mexico)

Shorelines are very dynamic environments and respond to the net amount of sediments supplied, sea level variations, the frequency and intensity of storms, as well as human interventions in the system. For many centuries, human settlements developed more in lower fluvial regions that in coastal areas; however in the late nineteenth century people began to build along the coastlines. Subsequent economic booms since the start of the 20th century led to an increase in coastal urbanization worldwide. As shorelines became urbanized, problems began to arise. The dynamic nature of the coast, in which shoreline positions alternate between moving seaward and moving landward, was not appreciated by coastal landowners who claimed fixed areas of property on which they build permanent structures. This resulted in coastal infrastructure vulnerable to shoreline erosion and inundation. The present climate change only worsen this condition, as suggested by studies related to possible implications of sea level rise (IPCC, 1992, Nicholls, 2002) and a more immediate effect due to increased storm frequency and intensity (Allan and Komar, 2006, Choi and Moon, 2013, Emanuel, 2005). Although the frequency and intensity of cyclones is site specific, the general consensus is that there is certainty in the increased intensity in the most energetic tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic since the 70s (Knutson et al., 2010, Wong et al., 2014), with the inherent increase of wave height and storm surge, which has caused heavy economic loss on coastal areas.