Impacto de la represa de Gallito Ciego en la estabilidad de línea de costa en la desembocadura del río Jequetepeque, Perú

Abstract

River plays an essential function in providing sediments to the beach stability but this importance has not yet been properly estimated on the Peruvian coastline. So, the aim of this study focuses on the role of river sediments in the stability of the coastline at the Jequetepeque river mouth, located at the northern coast of Peru. This river, whose basin covers an area of ​​4,200 square kilometers, provides in average more than 900 million cubic meters a year (MMC yr -1 ) of water, and 2.9-8.0 MMC yr -1 of sediments to the ocean. Since the start of the Gallito Ciego dam in 1987, more than 104 MMC of sediments were retained into the reservoir. In order to assess the impact of the dam on the stability of the river mouth, a comparison among different coastline moments (for the years 1962, 1980, 2003 and 2011) with the support of GIS, were made. The results showed that the river mouth retreat to the land between 2003 and 2011 with rates of -2.6 m year -1 . Moreover, the retreat of the coastline observed throughout the study area between 1962 and 2011, it could be related to the potential sea level rise and the trend of the worldwide beach erosion.