Land Uses Allocation: The Execution of an Artificial Beach and Its Complementary Infrastructures – Madeira Island – Machico, Portugal

Abstract

The present study aims to propose the creation of an artificial beach in the municipality of Machico and its complementary infrastructures, located on the south-eastern coast of the Madeira Island (Portugal). Machico’s beach sand consists of a mixture of black volcanic sand and round basalt stones. Usually, it has clear waters and a quiet sea. This beach also has a mooring infrastructure, thus allowing access to the sea. In order to achieve this study’s main goals, it was initially carried out an extensive review and bibliographic research. Subsequently, a sand beach and its shelter groins were simulated and designed to hypothetically promote the retention of the sand and mitigate the tidal effects. In addition to model the beach dynamics, an extensive characterization of the extreme maritime regime was performed. The model was developed based on topographic and hydrographic site surveys and the data using Wave Watch III model at 32.0°N, 17.0°W—obtained from SONEL web page, which gathers new data every 6 hours. Besides, the study also contemplated the analysis of the sea inundation quota for a return period of 100 and 500 years and its development along with the Master Plan of the City of Machico. Furthermore, some final remarks and conclusions will be shown; besides, some future projects should be developed to expand the knowledge of this thematic field.