Week 13

 Venezuelan coastal hazards

The main focus for this weeks blog is the coastal hazard, erosion. Venezuela is a coastal country with its capital being located by the Caribbean Sea. A journal written in 1997 was about coastal hazards for Venezuela. In the abstract of the journal article it explains the situation for Venezuela and its coastline. The predicted damage was written to be about 350 million dollars from coastal erosion and a sea-water level rise of about one meter by 2100. The predicted amount of people being displaced from their homes also 56,000 to 62,000. The article also describes the inundation of the Orinoco Delta being the most costly part because of its low lying location. The land loss and inundation is most likely this costly because of the coastal oil infrastructure in Venezuela, oil being a big part of their economy.  All of these predictions are assuming the regular erosion patterns since 1991. These damages are assuming a "No Protection" response but the article does describe that these assumptions are not entirely correct. The abstract also mentions "increasing planning and coastal management efforts could avoid increasing future vulnerability, particularly for the large coastal frontage (>2,000 km) where little or no development exists today." The problem was answered in 2001 with a national protection law put forth in Venezuela. The article from Geotextile Tubes Sludge Dewatering Bags Erosion Control gives a very detailed description of Venezuela's coastal protection. The law integrates many different types of hard stabalization like a seawall or living shorelines. They also use mangrove plants to prevent shoreline erosion. These protections prevent 6,000 kilometers of land from being damaged

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25735713 

https://www.geotextiletubes.com/coastal-erosion-protection/venezuela/