Vulnerability:: Evaluating the consequences of coastal changes.: An application to deltaic coasts

A framework to evaluate the implications of coastal evolution in the components of the coastal system has been developed. It has been derived to be used in deltaic coasts and, in particular, in the Ebro delta. However the procedure is general enough and it can be used in any coastal system. The framework measures the status of the coastal environment due to any natural or man-induced process by means of partial vulnerability indexes. These indexes are calculated by making use of fuzzy logic and they characterize how sensitive the system is for a given use/resource due to a specific process. This is illustrated by calculating the vulnerability of a deltaic coast in terms of environmental values due to coastal evolution.