Coastal post-hurricane morphology as an indicator of the intensity threat of hurricanes [La morfología costera posthuracán como indicador de la intensidad de la amenaza por huracanes coastal post-hurricane morphology as an indicator of the intensity threat of hurricanes]
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abstract
The threat from high intensity hurricanes prompts the design of preventive methodologies for the spatial analysis of natural conditions that inhibit or magnify adverse changes and effects of hurricanes in natural and anthropic landscapes. Knowing hurricane behavior and effects based on records of similar past events allows for establishing possible change scenarios or extreme damage that could possibly occur in the future. For the present study, post-hurricane costal morphology of sandy-accumulative coasts was used as a direct geoindicator of modifying effects of hurricanes and their relation with hurricane intensity. Two stages were followed according to occurrence of the reference typical hurricane: prehurricane, in which territorial data of previous morphological and environmental conditions are analyzed; and post-hurricane, identi- fying geomorphological responses for relatively homogeneous territorial ranges. In both stages analogical and digital cartographic references were used that were produced by processing images obtained through videographic records taken immediately after the hurricane. The destructive potential of hurricanes in coastal environments is inferred from morpho-sedimentary evidence. Two impact zoning patterns were discerned by the inclusion of most relevant morphological features: proximal frontal and proximal associated. The territorial susceptibility for the hurricane Roxanne was expressed in 13 sectors with different intensity responses depending on relative terrain elevation, dynamic predisposition of geoforms, location in the transverse incidence profile, and biogenic fixation.
