The Severe 2013–14 Winter Storms in the Historical Evolution of Cantabrian (Northern Spain) Beach-Dune Systems

Abstract

The 2013–14 winter storms were the most energetic storms in the European Atlantic on record since at least 1948. They caused intense erosive processes along the coast, similar to those described previously in places such as the United Kingdom and France. In this study, an analysis is conducted of the historical evolution (1956–2017) of four dune systems in the region of Cantabria (northern Spain) and their response to such storms. The analysis uses aerial images (from 1956, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2017) implemented in ArcGIS, and the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) model for the estimation of a series of statistical parameters relative to the historical behavior of the shoreline. The DSAS model allows a geometric structure to be calculated that is flexible and can be adapted to the morphological conditions of the coast. The results obtained from the model for the entire historical period and the pre-storm analysis show clear variability in the evolution of the dune systems, while the post-storm analysis yields homogeneous results that indicate significant erosion, with no signs of recovery. The limited time elapsed since the 2013–14 winter storm clustering and the high interannual energy variability of the subsequent winters seem to be behind the absence of evidence of dune system recovery and even the increase in the erosion processes observed in some cases.