Publications by authors named "Carolina Pena-Alonso"

Article Synopsis
  • Traditional land uses have significantly altered sedimentary systems due to plant removal for grazing, fuel, and farming, yet quantifying deforestation processes has been challenging due to complexity and limited historical data.
  • A new methodology combines historical documents, oral interviews, and literature reviews to assess the impact of deforestation, applied in a case study on Jandía, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.
  • Findings reveal that to operate a large lime kiln, removal of extensive plant areas was necessary, leading to significant ecological and geomorphological changes and contributing to the eventual decline of the lime kiln industry by the 1960s.
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The formation of transgressive aeolian sedimentary systems on hot-spot volcanic islands results in globally singular conditions. The natural attractions and landscape features of these spaces can result in the concentration of urban-tourist developments in their surroundings, altering their physical integrity and their ecological and scenic functionality. This has been the case of the Corralejo dunefield in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain), where the strong pressure exerted by tourism is endangering the area's natural and landscape resources.

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Tropical peatlands such as Ghana's Greater Amanzule peatland are highly valuable ecosystems and under great pressure from anthropogenic land use activities. Accurate measurement of their occurrence and extent is required to facilitate sustainable management. A key challenge, however, is the high cloud cover in the tropics that limits optical remote sensing data acquisition.

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The research hypothesis considered in this study is that decisions adopted on beach use and management in arid environments can result in significant changes in the biogeomorphological processes of the beach-dune system of which it forms part. Different information sources and geographical information systems were used to make a spatiotemporal analysis of possible correlations between the presence of beach equipment, services and uses in the backshore area of an arid beach-dune system, such as the beach named Playa del Inglés (Gran Canaria island, Spain) and environmental changes detected in the same area. The period considered in the study covers from 1961 (before the development of the mass tourism on the island) to 2018.

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Foredunes are formed by aeolian sand deposition in vegetation on the backshore of beaches. In this paper, the foredune mode (nebkha, discontinuous foredune, and continuous foredune), and transgressive dunefield development is studied along the Great Australian Bight (GAB), 2668 km of coastline. Orthophotos are used to classify the foredune mode, coastal landforms and the vegetation, through geographic information systems (GIS), with fieldwork support.

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Human occupancy of beaches is an important cause of environmental and landscape transformations, some of which are identifiable through vegetation analysis. Commonly, arboreal vegetation has been socially perceived in a positive way, as it contributes to the creation of environments appreciated as beautiful and natural. This type of vegetation has been recreated in urban coastal areas worldwide, including those located in arid environments where it is not always common or endemic to these areas.

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Article Synopsis
  • - A new arid dune vulnerability index (ADVI) was created to assess the geomorphological vulnerability of beach-dune systems in arid regions, focusing on three main areas: susceptibility, exposure, and resilience, evaluated across 11 sites in the Canary Islands.
  • - These sites were classified based on their conservation status and management needs, with findings indicating that most sites exhibited low to moderate levels of susceptibility and exposure, while resilience remained high, except for one site showing critical vulnerability.
  • - The study highlights a gap in understanding geomorphological processes in arid foredunes, suggesting that ADVI can serve as a vital tool for environmental managers to better address vulnerability in these ecosystems.
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A system of indicators has been developed to evaluate beach geomorphological vulnerability (GVI) through: intrinsic susceptibility, the agents that model them, and their ability to remain stable over time. The method is applied to 34 beaches on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) that experience different levels and conditions of human occupation, marine incidence, landforms and sediments, and spatial evolution that have been recorded since 1960. In contrast with other studies, the analysis of these dimensions (and their relationships) allows a diagnosis of the geomorphology of the beaches with an integrated approach.

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