The Environment Secretariat of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge awarded the Temporary Business Union (UTE) formed by Geomytsa and Proes Consultores Tenerife the echocartographic study of the island’s coastline for 1,859,140 euros. This action, which includes the comprehensive analysis of the coast at the level of biodiversity and cartography, is integrated into the Framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The initial total budget of the technical assistance tender was estimated at the amount of 2,624,380 euros.
The Ministry promotes this work because the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea (DGCM) specifies the collection of information on the Tenerife coastal environment in order to increase its knowledge about it and “lay the best foundations in the development of actions aimed at protecting the coast”. This is the objective of this exhaustive study of the coastal strip of the Island of Tenerife.
The goal of this initiative is improve knowledge of the coastline to delve into aspects as important as information on marine flora and fauna; the type of sediments or the depth of the bottom among other relevant aspects.
Although there may be scattered basic information in relation to the requirements that are the subject of these works, it must be completed, expanded or improved in different terms so that they meet the specifications required by the General Directorate.
The work to be carried out basically consists of the collection, processing, obtaining and making available of cartographic and geographic information in relation to the most relevant aspects for the study and knowledge of the coast. All the accumulated data will be available in a Geographic Information System for its operational exploitation and accessibility to potential users.
The UTE awarded the contract must have a multidisciplinary team of personnel that includes specialists in environmentalists, biologists, surveyors, civil engineers with experience in coastal dynamics, specialists in geomorphology and in obtaining, processing and managing databases, as well as all the auxiliary personnel necessary to carry out the work. The company has a period of 24 months to deliver the study, for which topographic, bathymetric and morphological surveys will be necessary; reports on coastal morphodynamics; the recognition of the natural, cultural and biological heritage of the coastal zone, as well as the treatment and management of information on the spaces.
‘Dissect’ the coastline
The echocartographic studies of the Spanish coast comprise a series of reports maritime engineering and ecology of the marine environment. They are documents owned by the General Directorate for Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea, which assumes the management of the maritime-terrestrial public domain and the development of conservation policies for the coast and sea.
The generic themes in each study are the bathymetric data –of the depths–, the zero line (the low tide with hydrographic zero); the morphology of the bottoms; the classification of beaches; sediment analysis; marine biological studies; the quality of the waters; the natural patrimony and a Land Use Plan for the coastline. Dissection of the coast of Tenerife.