Abstract
The accumulation of sediment in the mouth of Villaviciosa estuary (NW Spain) is becoming an obstaclefor the safe navigation in this estuary. One sector of its outer inlet is characterised by a broad shoal linkedwith a longshore bar of a beach, whose erosion is causing the silting of this area. On this basis, this paperaims to describe the processes that occurred in the lower part of the estuary due to the anthropogenicactivities in the channel and inlet. For this purpose, several measurements were made in the watercolumn and in the sedimentary bottoms to characterise the processes that occur in this area. Based onthese results, a dynamic and morpho-sedimentary model was developed to examine the interactionsbetween the lower estuary and the exposed part of the confining barrier beach, which allows to establishthe evolutionary trends of sedimentary bottoms linked to the marina of El Puntal. Different managementmeasures are carried out to reduce the impact of the sediment accumulation on the navigability, such asperiodically dredging in the inlet of the estuary, and the subsequent dumping of the sediments in areasnear to the closure depth. Consequently, future retreat of narrow inlet and sandy shoal can be avoided,maintaining the sedimentary volume in the system.
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