Vulnerability to sea-level rise on the coast of the Buenos Aires Province

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to identify and quantify those stretches in the Buenos Aires province that present different degrees of risk in view of the rise of the mean sea level and to determine its nature. The study focused on the Buenos Aires province coast because its variant geomorphology represents the different morphologies along the whole of the Argentinean coastline. The aim of this article is to study the response of two of the coastal vulnerability equations to the environmental diversity and to determine which one is more suitable to be applied to the rest of the country. On verifying the equations, CVI6 was found to be more appropriate for the analysis of coasts with different morphologies. Depending on the physical characteristics of each area, the consequences would include flooding and the loss of low lands in areas such as the Samborombón Bay, Bahía Blanca Estuary, and Anegada Bay, and the eroding of the beaches between Punta Rasa and Bahía Blanca.