EurOCEAN 2000 - Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee

The INDIA Project brings together multi-disciplinary research teams from some 20 research
institutes in Europe and around the world to study interactive coastal processes in a natural
dynamic tidal inlet located in the Ria Formosa National Park in the Algarve region of Portugal.
Research advice has been provided by SME's, Bullen & Partners (UK) and Halcrows (UK).
The Project started on the 1 st November 1997 and lasts for three years. Final Project results
will be presented for scientists/engineers and end-users at a special three-day INDIA workshop
to be held between 25-27 th September 2000 at the University of the Algarve (UALG), Faro,
Portugal as part of the 3 rd Symposium on the Atlantic Iberian Margin (see also
www.ualg.pt/ciacomar/Simp). Further Project details are given below as well as on the
Project's Web site (http://www.pol.ac.uk/india/INDIA.html).
2. OBJECTIVES
A threefold approach is used in the Project to obtain increased understanding of complex
processes. Direct field observations have been made in the vicinity of the Barra Nova Inlet, a
newly-dredged (June 1997) inlet through the Ancão peninsula at Faro in the Algarve, Portugal.
Use has been made of a large range of remote sensing equipment, including acoustic, radar and
video systems, with much of the equipment being deployed during an intensive field campaign
between January - March 1999: video records have continued from a tower up to January 2000,
when observations were stopped due to erosion of the tower supports. In addition, a range of
one-, two-, and three-dimensional computer models of flow, water level and seabed changes
have been used to extend the spatial and temporal distribution of coastal parameters. Data
from other international studies, particularly in Holland and America is being studied to
integrate the field site into a wider context. Details of Project organisation, work plan,
equipment and models have been given in earlier publications, see Section 6.
3. RESULTS
Partners are currently analysing the large quantity of field data that was successfully collected
during the 1999 field campaign and which is currently being assembled into a Project Database
by BODC. In addition, data is being used to check and calibrate models.
• Analysis of satellite photographs by UALG and lagoon modelling by HIDROMOD show
that the deterioration of the original Ancão Inlet, which was some 5km to the east of the
Barra Nova, is at the expense of the rapid widening of the Barra Nova Inlet.
• The geometry of the Barra Nova Inlet has been shown by LU to have developed in width
at an exponential rate to reach equilibrium values after some 18 months. GPS and
bathymetric observation by UALG show that individual storms have had a much greater
impact on changes in width than in inlet depth. Video tower analysis by UP confirms that
up to 60m of vegetated dunes were lost downcoast from Isle de Barreta in a single storm
event. There has also been 90m of erosion over the seven-month period from December
1998 to July 1999. The corresponding movement of the Inlet channel was 55m towards
Barreta.
• Examination of historic bathymetric charts and satellite photographs by UALG suggests a
twenty year cycle for the new Inlet, based on evidence of the earlier Ancão Inlet, with a
yearly alongshore movement of some 100m while modelling longshore sediment
movement by LU using computer hindcasts of wave information by IST suggests that
some 80% of such movement occurs during the winter months of November to April with
south easterly movements of nearly 30m/month.
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