Peer Review Assignment #1

Geoprocessing tool to model beach erosion due to storms: application to Faro beach (Portugal). 

By: ALMEIDA, L.P., FERREIRA, Ó. And TABORDA, R.

URL: https://hostsited2l.uwf.edu/content/enforced/998343-50402GIS5103201705/SupplementalReadings/PotentialsForPeerReview/Almeida_et_al_2011.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=toxLBNl0eaL1nMS7E8yhUvnlj&ou=998343

This article discusses the application of GIS programming on creating a geoprocessing tool called GEOSTORM which models beach erosions caused by coastal storms. GEOSTORM was applied to a case study onto Faro Beach, Portugal. The tool cuts down on the amount of processes taken to get a model representation of the beach erosion. GEOSTORM is comprised of two modules that are connected to graphical user interface (GUI).

The first module of this geoprocessing tool is preparation of transect. This module allow the users to create a group of cross-shore transects with uniform lateral spacing along the coastal area of interest. The inputs that are needed before using the Module 1 are a digital terrain model (DTM) and a baseline shapefile. Python was used to create this module by using the scripts as executable files which can be brought forth from the VBA code when the GUI pushbutton objects are acted upon. The by-product of this module are XYZ coordinates for each transect (Almeida et al. 2011:1831). 

The second module uses this XYZ coordinates to give a profile erosion estimation of each transect by applying the Kriebel and Dean storm erosion convolution model. The by-products of this module are the retreat line and the eroded volume. Kriebel and Dean model allows the determination of maximum retreat and eroded volume for four types of schematic beach profiles (Almeida et al. 2011:1831). Another programming software was used to help connect Module 1 to Module 2 and this software is called Matlab GUI. Matlab GUI was used as a boundary line between Kriebel and Dean model and the user. The beach profiles that were created by Module 1 are utilized by the Matlab GUI.  This data is utilized by the user to set the hydrodynamic conditions. Once the conditions are set, the simulation will start but the user has to continuously input some morphological parameters to help define the profile type. The final results of the second module are converted into ASCII files which are then converted into a shapefile using Python and finally imported to ArcMap using VBA (Almeida et al. 2011:1831-1832).

GEOSTORM was applied to the case study area of Faro Beach, Portugal using a storm with a 25 year wave characteristics return period in the application. The results of GEOSTORM show that there is not enough protection from erosion due to predicted output of the beach coastline morphology. The lack of protection means that the storm’s erosion impact will affect areas where humans occupy such as houses, roads, parking and seawalls (Almeida et al. 2011:1832-1834). 

Overall this article was very straight to the point on how this new geoprocessing tool can be used for real life issues many coastal communities face after a storm passes through thus causing the coastline to eroded. The article was well written and was easily understandable for a person who just began learn about GIS and applications of programming. The only weakness that was found in this article was that it did not elaborate enough about Matlab which I would have like to learn more about.

L.P. Almeida, Ó. F. (2011). Geoprocessing tool to model beach erosion due to storms: application to. Journal of Coastal Research, 1830-1834.