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Over the last 50 years, coastal erosion has become a serious problem, rising in magnitude and dominance along the Caribbean coastline of Colombia. Circa 50% of this important area for the country is undergoing serious erosion problems related to a multiplicity of factors contrasted by their degree of influence and magnitude, e.g. sedimentary imbalances, extreme waves, ecosystems destruction and sea level rise. Coastal protection related with hard structures has been the first, and in some cases, the only management strategy for these erosion problems. At the beginning of 2016, at least 1484 hard structures (both cross and longshore, such as, groins, seawalls, breakwaters, amongst others) have been built along the Colombian Caribbean coast, the highest concentrations being found in tourist cities. A significant percentage (close to 90%) of these hard structures have not been very successful or have failed in their purpose. These hard structures have altered the natural conditions of the study area, producing impacts such as i) coastal armoring, ii) reduced sediment supplies to downdrift areas, iii) intensification of erosion processes, iv) generation of nearby new erosion hot spots, v) deterioration of coastal scenery quality, among others. This paper describes and evaluates the functionality of coastal protection strategies used up to the present and delves into management aspects of coastal protection in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It also indicates the current and future coastal protection scene for the region and highlights major trends and challenges faced by users, land owners, and coastal managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-six beaches belonging to Atlántico department, Caribbean coast of Colombia, were surveyed to determine magnitudes, sources, and management of litter. Beach litter was observed along the entire coastline, and a total of 7,597 items weighing 412 kg were collected from all 26 beaches surveyed. The average abundance of litter found along the study area was 2.9 items m −1 . Vegetation debris and plastic items dominated the samples respectively with 59% (Avg: 1.72 items m −1 ) and 27% (Avg: 0.82 items m −1 ). Other litter groups were polystyrene 3% (Avg: 0.1 items m −1 ), rubber 3% (Avg: 0.08 items m −1 ) and glass 2% (Avg: 0.04 items m −1 ). Metal, organic, processed wood, paper and biohazards items reached 5%, while textiles and miscellaneous represented less than 1%. Concerning buoyancy characteristics, the most represented litter category was persistent buoyant litter (with 91% of items), followed by short-term (6%) and non-buoyant litter (3%). The primary source of litter corresponds to litter transported by rivers, mainly the Magdalena River, together with human activities related to beach use ( i.e. tourism). Litter produced poor scenic scores along the Atlántico department coastline and improvement can easily upgrade scenic beach quality scores. Results such as those given are necessary to identify, improve and conserve beaches standards together with the contribution that they make to the environmental, social and economic, well-being of local communities. Beach litter management along the study area (as well along the Caribbean coast of Colombia) must be based on strategies to reduce or eliminate litter sources. For that, it is necessary to consider beach types to define the intensity and periodicity of actions to be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the location, scenery and litter evaluation of 35 Colombian Caribbean beaches (9 remote, 9 village, 14 urban and 3 resort). Four litter grades were found. A: excellent (5); B: good (8); C: fair (19) and D: poor (3). A Decision Value parameter (D), for scenery gave: Class I – extremely attractive/natural, D > 0.85, 6 sites; Class II – attractive/natural sites, D = 0.85 –0.65, 2 sites; Class III – mainly natural sites, few outstanding features, D = 0.65–0.4, 1 site; Class IV – mainly unattractive sites, D = 0.4 to zero, 6 sites; Class V – very unattractive sites, D = <0, 20 sites. Litter amounts placed most beaches into a poor scenic category and many scenic beaches could jump a grade by means of clean-ups. A graphic methodology highlighted beaches with contradictory results for litter/scenic grades. Tourists abhor littered beaches and clean-ups would improve scenery scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a methodology is applied to generate synthetic wave series during mean and extreme conditions. An analysis is carried out that describes mean and extreme wave behavior for several climatic conditions along the Colombian Caribbean Coast. During mean conditions, the most energetic ocean waves are observed during the DJF season for both ENSO phases (El Niño and La Niña) for most of the Caribbean Sea. During the Niño years, there is a reduction in the speed of the north-east trade winds and their associated waves, but only in the DJF and MAM seasons. However, during the JJA season, this situation is reversed with the highest values occurring during El Niño and low values appearing during La Niña. Toward the east around the Guajira region, this general pattern is shown to change significantly. For extreme conditions, the results show a significant influence of extreme events toward the northwest, around La Guajira and the insular zones of San Andres and Providence when compared with other regions along the coast. All of these results (including the synthetic wave series) provide a design and management tool for the successful implementation of any coastal project (scientific or consulting) in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Champeta is music from around the Black Atlantic played by large sound systems called picós in the cities of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. I argue that champeta is comprised of the mutual co-constitution of a system of exchange (through which music, technological devices and material artefacts circulate), a social system (in which local and transnational networks of people are organised around particular picós to participate in that system of exchange) and an aesthetic system (which dramatises the social networks’ access to the system of exchange by encoding those processes into sound). In doing so, I suggest that the entanglement of these three fields might be understood through economic anthropology, materiality, informal economies and Manuel DeLanda’s interpretation of the assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This note describes some of the safety and security concerns posed by the transportation of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from a nuclear research reactor located in Bogota (Colombia) to a port on the Colombian Caribbean coast. The operation was made at a moment of extremely high guerilla activity in Colombia, so that the decision-problem belongs in the extension of risk analysis known as threat analysis. By invoking a principle of dispreference for probability based on the concept of stochastic dominance, a qualitative risk comparison was made between the road and air alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]