Assessment of the Restoration of the Remolar Dune System (Viladecans, Barcelona): The Resilience of a Coastal Dune System

Abstract

The Remolar beach-dune system (700 m long and more than 100 m wide, 070N direction) borders a campground that was closed (2003), due to the Barcelona airport expansion. In order to recover and restore the dune ecosystem, a series of soft measures were performed. After 10 years, a study of the morphology, sedimentology, and vegetation of the ecosystem was carried out to evaluate the results of these measures. For this purpose, a series of topographic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) profiles, grain-size analysis, and an analysis of plant communities found along the profiles were carried out. The data obtained were compared with data from a former 2004 study. The results show that the morphology of the dunes recovered, and a new primary dune has arisen. The system now has a greater process of aggradation than of progradation. The vegetation has recovered the global composition of dune systems, with a typical community of embryo dunes and others of primary dunes that are set in strips parallel to the coast. Despite this improvement, the opportunistic and ruderal component in the primary dune vegetation evidences a strong anthropic inheritance in the system.