Accumulation of pressures that may cause hydrographic alterations or sedimentation modification in the Canary Region (EM CAN PRE Modification Sedimentation)

The identification of areas that may potentially undergo sedimentation modification or hydrographic alterations has been carried out on the basis of the following human pressures/activities: — Port and defense infrastructure. — Water retention in reservoirs. — Extraction of solids: exploitation of undersea and port dredged deposits. — Artificial reefs and controlled sinking of wrecks. — Discharge of dredged port material. — Regeneration of beaches and creation of artificial beaches. The analysis has been carried out through a semi-quantitative index, which takes into account the presence or proximity of the elements that can cause this type of impacts. The selection of cells for each of the pressures has been made according to the following criteria: — Those that contain some authorised place of discharge of dredged material. — Those that are less than 500 m from some artificial or regenerated beach. — Those that are less than 100 m from some stretch of artificial coast. “Those that are less than 500 m from some port.” — Those that contain some artificial reef. — Those containing some heavily modified body of water declared under the WFD. — Those that are less than 100 m from some stretch of eroded coastline. The following formula has then been applied: Modification sedimentation= 0.1*[artificial reef + artificial or regenerated beaches] + 0.25*[dragged material] + 0.5*[artificial coast + ports] + 1*[mass of highly modified water + eroded coast] The following criterion has been used to classify cells: Very High: 2.11 to 2,25/High: 1.51 to 2,1/Medium: 0.61 to 1.5/Low: 0.11 to 0,6/Very Low: minor 0.1.