Garcia, I.; Negro, V.; López, J.S.; Esteban, M.D., and Del Campo, J.M., 2020. Coastal morphological response to the effect of structures of protection against erosion. In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 220–224. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The prediction of sandy tombolo formation by the presence of detached breakwaters is key to the use of these elements as beach protection systems. The distance from the shoreline is a relevant factor and must be determined based on the characteristics of the incident waves, the dimensions of the artificial protections themselves, the typologies of the beach and the coastal sedimentary transport zone. In the cases analysed of detached breakwater systems with sandy tombolo formation, linear trends are obtained in between said characteristics. These results can be extrapolated to other cases located in other countries on the Mediterranean coast. Obtaining these relationships has led us to propose a new sizing method that sets the separation of the structures from the shore.