Ph.D. Program in Oceanography and Global Change at the Canary Islands, Spain
The geomorphological processes that occur in the interaction between aeoloian and slope sedimentary systems have been, until now, scarcely studied. If, in addition, we focus on areas of arid climate, there is practically no background in the scientific literature, especially if we treat these interaction processes in volcanic islands of intraplate hot spots. Precisely, the aeolian sedimentary systems, generally absent in oceanic islands, are present, with a certain amplitude, on the coasts of the Canary Islands, especially in the eastern ones, whose climate is arid. In them, in addition, by their original nature of volcanic islands of hot spot, the hillside geoforms predominate (craters, gravitational slides etc ..). This implies that the interaction between these two systems occurs frequently in this archipelago. Considering these antecedents, the main objective of this work is the geomorphological characterization of these processes, using as an area of study places of interaction between alluvial and wind systems in sandy coastal environments of the Canary Islands. Special attention will be paid to the systems of Corralejo (Fuerteventura) and the south of La Graciosa.
For the development of the work, sources of different nature will be used, such as LiDAR data, aerial images (photograms, mosaics and orthophotos), satellite images, topographic field data, sediment samples or vegetation inventories. For the realization of spatial analysis and multivariate statistics, geographic information systems (GIS) will be used, in conjunction with other computer tools.
