Shoreline change identification and analysis along the coast of Guyana, South America

Abstract

Guyana's coast is one of those in South America subjected to shoreline change. Understanding of spatio-temporal changes in shoreline position and the processes that drive the changes is very important in coastal protection, for increased shoreline surveillance and future planning. The aim of this study was to investigate the spatial and areal extent of this shoreline's morphological dynamics. It examined 49 years of the spatio-temporal behaviour of Guyana's shoreline by integrating and analysing the historical georeferenced satellite images in Google Earth repository, from 1969 to 2015 and onsite field mapping undertaken in 2017-2018. These were analysed using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) package of USGS in ESRI's© ArcGIS software. Rates of shoreline change were evaluated for the entire shoreline and these rates of change results varied at different sections of the entire coastline. Most of the Guyana coastal area continued to face shoreline erosion. The driving forces of the change were attributed to the natural forcing (sea level rise) and anthropogenic factors (e.g., sand mining and progressive depletion of mangrove forests). Anthropogenic interventions, such as the construction of breakwaters and mangrove rehabilitation and replanting were noticed to be responsible for some region-specific positive responses and adjustment to shoreline behaviour.