by Renaca, Chile (Reuters) -Chile -Central and South Coast are faced with erosion, which, according to a team of scientists in the South American country, can disappear at least 10 beaches within a decade that extends over several thousand km (miles) along the Pacific.
“It will be very difficult for these beaches to survive in the next 10 years,” said Carolina Martinez, director of the Coastal Observatory at Universidad Catolica, in an interview this month at Renaca Beach near the popular coastal city of Vina del Mar.
Your team has followed the erosion on 67 beaches and found that 86% shrinking steadily – even in spring and summer, when they normally recover.
In particular, ten who had a high erosion in 2023 have quickly lost ground and the rates are now about twice as high.
The causes are produced both naturally and by humans, said Martinez.
It pointed to intensive and more and more frequent swells, which was driven by climate change as well as on rising sea levels, sudden rains and heat waves as key factors. The undisclosed urbanization and the deterioration of river basins, which supply sand on the coast, also contributed to this.
In Puerto Saavedra, in the southern region of Araucania, storm floods carved dolines in streets and cliffs and cut access to some communities. The salt water also damages forests.
“We see cliffs and sand coast that withdraw quickly,” said Martínez.
Some local companies in popular tourist cities already feel the influence. “Last year was brutal … the beach disappeared,” said Maria Harris, who has a restaurant on the beach in Valparaiso. “There was no space between us and the sea.”
Despite the risks, the construction is continued along the coast, often near wetlands and dunes. Martinez warned that the effects beyond the environment go out.
“We transfer the costs for these disasters to people – fisherms, coastal communities and the tourism sector,” she said.
(Reporting by Nicolas Cortes and Carolina Fernandez; writing by Daina Beth Solomon and Lucinda Elliott; Editor of Sandra Maler)
