Jose J. Alonso del Rosario

Sea-level rise may substantially reduce the dry space available on sandy beaches, although its effects depend strongly on local beach characteristics. This study evaluates the residual spatial functionality of five beaches in southern Spain using two normalized indicators: residual available surface area (F_A) and residual available beach width (F_W). Both express the proportion of dry beach space remaining relative to a common present-day reference condition without wave run-up. The analysis builds on previously calculated inundation results for present conditions and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios for 2026–2045 and 2081–2100, including astronomical tide, meteorological residual, sea-level rise, and wave run-up. Marked differences are observed among the studied beaches across both time periods. Under RCP 4.5 in 2026–2045, Torreguadiaro retains 85.1% of its reference area and 79.8% of its reference mean width. Rinconcillo retains 31.9% and 38.7%, respectively. Under RCP 8.5 in 2081–2100, these values decrease to 75.6% and 65.3% at Torreguadiaro. At Rinconcillo, they decrease to 7.1% and 17.6%. F_A and F_W also evolve differently among sites: their values remain relatively close at Malagueta but diverge markedly at Rinconcillo under the most severe scenario. Joint consideration of F_A and F_W therefore provides complementary information on the amount and configuration of residual dry beach space and may support comparison among beaches from a coastal management perspective.

Sea level rise poses a major threat to dry beach areas, particularly in low-lying and managed coastal environments. Reliable assessments of future beach vulnerability therefore require the combined consideration of sea level rise, tidal regime, meteorological forcing, and wave-driven processes. Here, a physically based methodology is applied to evaluate future inundation and beach response at five representative sandy beaches along the southern coast of Spain. The selected sites span mesotidal Atlantic and microtidal Mediterranean settings. The approach integrates present-day conditions with sea level rise projections under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, astronomical tide, and meteorological residuals. Wave run-up is estimated using the IH2VOF CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model. Extreme still water levels and maximum inundation levels are derived for mid-century (2026–2045) and end-of-century (2081–2100) periods, and their impacts on available dry beach surface and beach width are quantified using cross-shore profiles. Results indicate a progressive reduction in dry beach surface and width across all sites, with impacts intensifying from mid- to end-century and from moderate to high-emission scenarios. While losses remain comparatively moderate under still-water assumptions, the inclusion of wave effects leads to substantially larger impacts. At the most vulnerable sites, dry beach surface losses reach up to 80% under still-water conditions, and up to complete loss (100%) when wave run-up is included, particularly along the mesotidal Atlantic coast. Overall, the results demonstrate that neglecting wave run-up can lead to a substantial underrepresentation of future beach inundation, and that its explicit inclusion provides a more reliable basis for beach management and adaptation planning under sea level rise.

Rising sea levels and increasing storm wave heights are two clear indicators of climate change affecting coastal environments worldwide. Coastal cities and infrastructure are particularly vulnerable to these hazards, highlighting the need for accurate predictions and effective adaptation and resilience strategies to protect human lives and economic activities. This study focuses on the Andalusia coast of southern Spain, from Cádiz to Almería, analyzing twelve years of sea level and wave height records using an Extreme Value Analysis. A key challenge lies in selecting the most suitable statistical distribution for long-term predictions. To address this, we propose a modified application of the Cramér–Rao Lower Bound and compare it with the Akaike Information Criteria and the Bayesian Information Criteria. Our results indicate that sea level extremes generally follow a Gumbel distribution, while wave height extremes align more closely with the Fisher–Tippett I distribution. Additionally, a high-resolution digital elevation model of the Navantia Puerto Real shipyard, generated with LiDAR scanning, was used to identify flood-prone areas and assess potential operational impacts. This approach allows for the development of practical recommendations for enhancing infrastructure resilience. The main contribution of this work includes the estimation of extreme regimes for sea level and wave stations, a novel and more efficient application of the Cramér–Rao Lower Bound, a comparative analysis with Bayesian criteria, and providing recommendations to improve the resilience of shipyard operations.

The ATLAZUL project is an Interreg effort among 18 partners from Spain and Portugal along the Atlantic Iberian coasts. One of its objectives is the development of new methods and data processing for oceanic information to produce useful products for private and public stakeholders. This study proposes a new insight on the sea surface dynamic of the ATLAZUL area based on almost two years of multiscale high resolution sea surface temperature imagery. The use of techniques such as the Karhunen–Loève transform (Empirical Orthogonal Function) and the Maximum Entropy Spectral Analysis were applied to study long- and short-term features in the sea surface temperature imagery. Mathematical Morphology and the Geometrical Theory of Measure are utilized to compute the Medial Axis Transform and the Hausdorff dimension. The results can be summarized as follows: (i) the tow upwelling areas are identified along the Galician–Portugal coast as indicated in the second and third modes of KLT/EOF analysis, and they are partially affected by wind; (ii) the tow warm water outflows from the Bay of Cádiz to the Gulf of Cádiz are identified as the second and third modes of KLT/EOF analysis, which are also influenced by wind; (iii) the skeletons of the surface signature of the upwelling and of the warmer water outflow, along with their fractal dimensions, indicate a chaotic pattern of spatial distribution and (iv) the harmonic prediction model should be combined with the wind prediction.

The Brazil–Malvinas Confluence (BMC) is one of the most complex oceanic areas in the Earth’s oceans and the prediction of high frequency structures tends to fail. The authors studied the BMC using Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution (MUR) imagery for the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) to address why the predictions are not as good as expected. The studies were carried out by means of two approaches. The first approach is the non-linear fitting of a harmonic model keeping the frequencies as parameters pixel by pixel. The second approach is from fractal geometry. The three first q-order Rényi dimensions were computed. At the same time, an inverse fractal interpolation was carried out to compute the contraction factor. Both of them are related to the chaotic behavior of nature. This work has three relevant contributions. The correlation between the harmonic models and the SST data is quite poor in general, implying the low harmonicity, and low harmonic predictability, of the pixel-by-pixel time series. It is verified that the quasi-annual and quasi-semiannual waves have periods of about 420 and 210 days, respectively. The second one is the confirmation of the high complexity of the BMC area because the three Rényi dimensions are equal. This has the strong finding of the monofractality of the dynamic of the SST in the BMC. Finally, the contraction factor, one of the parameters of the fractal interpolation, is relatively high, implying the presence of highly complex internal structures in the SST temporal evolution.

The most common nondestructive weld inspection technique is X-rays and, since a few years ago, the ultrasound-based phased array. Their comparison has been done from the top view of both, with the result that the phased array is much more efficient in discovering flaws. From the last studies of the authors, a welding flaw can be three-dimensionally reconstructed from the sectorial phased array information. The same methodology is applied to compare quantitatively X-rays and phased array on 15 metal inert/active (MIG/MAG) welding specimens covering pores, slag intrusion and cracks. The results can be summarized in the correlation of the top views and in the correlation profiles between the X-ray top-view and the reconstructed top-view at the depths from phased array in the weld. The maximum correlation is the depth when the flaw in the X-ray looks like that in the phased array records at some depth, leading to an effective quantitative comparison of X-rays and phased array.

Weldment inspection is a critical process in the metal industry. It is first conducted visually, then manually and finally using instrumental techniques such as ultrasound. We made one hundred metal inert/active gas (MIG/MAG) weldments on plates of naval steel S275JR+N with no defects, and inducing pores, slag intrusion and cracks. With the objective of the three-dimensional reconstruction of the welding defects, phased array ultrasound inspections were carried out. Error-free weldment probes were used to provide the noise level. The results can be summarized as follows. (i) The top view obtained from the phased array provided no conclusive information about the welding defects. The values of the echo amplitudes were about 70 mV for pores and cracks, and greater than 150 mV for slag intrusion, all of which showed great variability. (ii) The sectional data did not lie at the same depths and they needed to be interpolated. (iii) The interpolated sectional views, or C-scans, allowed the computation of top views at any depth, as well as the three-dimensional reconstruction of the defects. (iv) The use of the simplest tool, consisting of the frequency histogram and its statistical moments, was sufficient to classify the defects. The mean echo amplitudes were 33 mV for pores, 72.16 mV for slag intrusion and 43.19 mV for cracks, with standard deviations of 8.84 mV, 24.64 mV and 12.39 mV, respectively. These findings represent the first step in the automatic classification of welding defects.