Short-term evaluation of the retreating cliffs of tibau do sul brazil

The objective of this article was to employ geotechnology tools, such as the Digital Image Processing (DIP) of the QUICKBIRD high-resolution satellite, spatial analysis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environments and the statistics modules of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS), to identify the coastal sectors containing cliffs in Tibau do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte (RN) state, Brazil, and quantify the retreat rates between 2003 and 2013. The results showed that about 34% of the shoreline of Tibau do Sul, dominated by cliffs, has retreated significantly. The greatest cliff retreat occurred in subsectors N2, C3 and S2, with a decrease of 1.5, 1.71 and 1.9m, respectively. The constant value (LR2) was unchanged in all cases and greater than 0.75, suggesting a linear erosive process throughout the decade analyzed. Thus, the tools and methods used are essential subsidies for identifying coastal erosive processes and developing instruments for the control and environmental management of the coastal zone.