González Rodríguez, S.V.; Valdecantos, V.N.; Diez, J.J.; del Campo, J.M., and Antón, M.M., 2021. Comparing the effects of erosion and accretion along the coast of Cartagena De Indias, Colombia. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(6), 1204–1223. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

This research paper is a study of the transformation of the coastal landscape. It is based on the modification of the coastline as the symbolic and dynamic border between the continent and the ocean. The methodology is a comparison of two cartographic maps from different time periods. The first map is from the General Archive of the Colombian Nation published in 1822, and the second is the result of an assembled image based on aerial photographs obtained with Google Earth during 2018. The procedure is divided into three stages. In the first stage, the maps were georeferenced using QGis and then vectorized using the design software AutoCAD. In the second stage, a superimposition was made to identify the changes in the coastline. Finally, the differences in areas were calculated and quantified by grouping them as appropriate in accretion or erosion. The obtained results suggest that the erosion in Cartagena de Indias during the evaluated period is higher with respect to the area of accretion obtained. A discussion comparing these results with different studies previously performed was had. It was concluded that Cartagena de Indias lost land, where its majority corresponds to mangroves and coral reefs.