拉丁美洲海岸侵蚀的现状英文文献和中文翻译
ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Coastal erosion, Low lying coastal areas, Low elevation coastal zone, coastal hazards, coastal resilience, Latin America. INTRODUCTION The morphology of coastal regions has always been partly shaped by erosion processes. Indeed the evolution of the Earth´s physical environment as a whole owes much to erosion. These processes were not given much attention until the adverse economic, social or environmental effects felt by communities began to be linked to erosion. In the Americas, long before the Conquest, several native navigation techniques (coastal, lacustrine and fluvial) existed, with numerous, perse wooden crafts being used (Biar, 2014). The construction of larger ports and associated infrastructure took place when Spaniards arrived in America and commerce with Europe became important (e.g., O’Rourke and Williamson, 2002). The necessity for harbours, and then new coastal settlements, was followed by the construction of infrastructure and thus began the intensive modification of the coasts of The New World. For over four centuries land management, both inland and coastal, did not consider the coastal zone as an integral part of hydrological units such as watersheds. The consequence was that the relevance of coastal morphodynamics was not taken into account until recently, when it became apparent that this was essential for the security and economic wellbeing of coastal populations. The coastal zones of Latin America feature a wide range of land forms. Expected climate change will bring about sea level rise and the different landforms will respond in different ways (e.g., Muehe, 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to explore the potential vulnerability of the distinct coastal types in response to climate change. Since risk to people is a key factor in vulnerability, the risk is greatest in the urbanized coasts, where the greatest impacts are expected to be caused by floods. However, the absence of long-term observations of oceanographic data and detailed topo-bathymetric data (e.g., González-Vázquez et al., 2014) presents a major difficulty for the evaluation of different risk scenarios at local level and consequently for the application of strategies aimed at minimizing these impacts on the population. Coastal erosion along Latin American shorelines, although widespread and in some parts severe, is not yet seen as a serious threat considering the coast as a whole. Major erosion problems are most frequently associated with human intervention in the sediment flux or are associated with the morphodynamic nature of river mouths (e.g., Muehe, 2010).