Villafañe-Rosa, Francisco J.

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    Análisis de costo de las alternativas para mitigar daños a la infraestructura costera de Rincón, Puerto Rico
    (2018) Villafañe-Rosa, Francisco J.; Aponte-Bermúdez, Luis D.; College of Engineering; Canals Silander, Miguel; López Rodríguez, Ricardo R.; Department of Civil Engineering; Méndez Piñero, Mayra
    The town of Rincón is in the northwest corner of Puerto Rico with a population of about 15,000. Like other US American beach community, Rincón’s local economy prosperity thrives on the condition of its beaches and has been driven primarily by the tourist industry since the late 1950s, its beachfront hotels, and the variety of small beaches along its shoreline. Coastal erosion and beach loss is a present threat of Rincon’s urban beach economic progress and has raised public and government concern to protect and preserved it. The study presented in this project details the recommended framework to establish a benefit/cost ratio of beach restoration alternatives along Rincon’s shoreline; these options are 1) armoring the beach (beach loss), 2) managed retreat (land loss), and beach nourishment (costly). Although beach nourishment is the primary method to combat beach erosion, a feasibility study is imperative to provide marine coastal zone manager the most reliable alternative. The study employs analysis and manipulation of geographical information system (GIS) utilizing data from the USGS, USACE, GME, and the Center for Municipal Revenue Collection referred as CRIM by its acronym in Spanish. The USGS GIS data provides historical shoreline position and erosion rate estimates; this data is used to predict the expected shoreline inland projection. A correction to the projected inland shoreline is needed to consider, sea level rise, terrain elevation, and existing beach armoring barriers (i.e. sea walls, metal sheet piling, and breakwater boulders). Field campaigns to gather GIS data of existing beach armoring system and have been carried out; these systems are typically built on the oceanfront properties, after surge events, to protect the infrastructure. Beach armoring create a stability condition that prevents inland shoreline movement, but lessons learned from the past point out that man-made barriers have a high price to pay since these coastal barriers structures exacerbate beach erosion resulting in beach loss. The USACE 2016 data consists in a LiDAR campaign where topographic and bathymetric data was collected utilizing the SHOALS System. A photogrammetric campaign was performed by GME; the products are a georeferenced ortho mosaic and DEM, contour line and elevation profiles. Rincon’s CRIM database contains 8,166 properties, of which 613 are oceanfront. The database provides a base property appraisal value adjusted to the year of 1958, of which 2,738 parcels (27%) contain data regarding recent sales value and transaction year. The mean growth rate of these properties is 6.3%, the value of Q1 is 4.66%, the median is 5.7%, and Q3 is 7.1%. The growth rate was used to adjust the CRIM database to present value and determine the cost benefit ratio with the suggested alternative to protect and restore the coastline. The areas in which the protection and armoring of the coastline are economically justified are between the Quebrada Ramos and the Hotel Villa Cofresí and the Córcega Beach.