Erosion and Coastal Structures in Brazilian Metropolises: The Case of Fortaleza and Its Inequalities

In this chapter, we aimed to identify and analyze how the structures were designed to prevent the advance of the sea in each region of the city of Fortaleza, a capital in the Northeast of Brazil, and how they interacted with local arrangements (e.g., social, political, and economic). Coastal erosion is a natural process caused by multiple factors and may also result from anthropic interventions along the coastline and hydrographic basins. Fortaleza has undergone several changes imposed by coastal erosion, in which the initial responses were based on rigid structures. In the last 20 years, the form of intervention has changed; there has been a substantial investment in coastal protection solutions with the use of more sand, the so-called soft structures to contain the advance of the sea. The methodology applied was based on the analyses of academic documents, satellite images in association with the instruments from the Brazilian Coastal Management Program (GERCO), and the National Coastline Conservation Program (Procosta). The result shows that Fortaleza has passed and continuously been undergoing resignifications caused by changes in its coastline along its 294 years of its history, ranging from the first coastal structure in 1875 to the most recent in 2019. Today, along the 34 km of coastline was possible to identify 39 coastal structures. Recovery type of structures was identified in 62% of the total cases. At the same time, protection types appear in 38% of cases. It represents that about 60% of Fortaleza’s coastline is altered due to the installation of coastal protection and/or restoration structures. The majority of these interventions are concentrated in areas less noble in the city, in neighborhoods with some of the worst human development index (HDI) and have a high population and demographic density levels in the city. In contrast, we also observed an evident change in the conception of coastal structures installed in the city. When we analyze the coastal neighborhoods with some of the best HDIs, there was a concern to integrate the protection and recovery structures with the rehabilitation structures. We conclude that municipal, state, and federal public authorities must seek the best ways to manage such spaces, focusing on participative methodologies that consider environmental and social characteristics, promoting greater equality from the point of view of their economic and social use.