Transformation of the coasts estuarine: The Case of Puerto La Plata and Paulino Island (Argentina)

Abstract

Estuarial coasts have been modified since they are the expression of a constructed reality, where the port vocation has been the core of this modifications. In La Plata Harbour (Argentina), it is observed how since its origin, by the end of the 19th century, it modified an area of the estuarial littoral of the Río de La Plata, to give an answer to the port’s necessities along the different development models that the country went through since the beginning of the State-Nation. The territorial transformations –from the construction of the port access channel, which gave rise to two islands –Paulino and Santiago-, to the destruction of a part of the internal coast for its adequacy to the enormous size vessel maneuvers in the new TECPLATA terminal- modified the area’s structure and had a territorial correlate in its geomorphology. The present work analyzes three events that had a remarkable impact in the area: the port’s origin and its access channel construction (1890), the elongation of the Southwest breakwater (2007) and the pivoting zone “cuatro bocas” (2012-2014). To carry out this research, a methodology to identify coastline variation along time, and its impact in the population, was implemented.