Representation and Interpretation Project of the coastal dynamics of the Perimeter Forest of Dunas de Ovar

Daniel Duarte Pereira

The following work is practice reflection on the theme of representation and interpretation of landscape. From a first concern related to the temporal and multidisciplinary representation of landscape, we devised a practical exercise base on a specific methodology that we applied on a fragment of the Coastal area of the Perimeter Forest of Dunas de Ovar. The undertaken research was organized into three layers of transcription - Natural Process, Artificialization Process and Appropriation Process – following the sequential structure of the steps defined by the method: interaction, decoding and synthesis. To start during the interaction, we organized representations based on field expeditions in order to select the themes that we would include in the analysis. For the natural process we addressed the natural topography of the dunes and the dune elevation; for the Artificialization Process, we identified three patterns of artificiality, by plantation, by land manipulation and by territorial restraint; For the Appropriation Process we identified a range of activities on the beach that where organized by an infrastructure made up of different topographic limits and levels. During the next step of the process, decoding, we compared the records we made at the site with documents from other authors from other areas of knowledge about the same geographical subject. For the Natural Process we supported our research through Geology, and discovered that the site is formed by two geological formations. In the Artificialization Process we relied on History and on Coastal Engineering to unveil the stabilization of the quick sands, an urban expansion of coastal communities and the construction of coastal defence structures on the beach; in the Appropriation Process we relied essentially on Coastal Area Science, showing the dynamics of the sea and the variation of environmental conditions of the site during time. Finally, based on the findings of the two previous steps, we elaborated representations that synthesized the studied layer of transcription. From this work resulted: for the Natural Process, a representation of the Dunar Elevation, a Map of the Dunar Topography and a Time Line of the Natural Process; for the artificialization process, the Artificialization Structures’ Map and a Time Line of the Artificialization Process; and finally, for the Appropriation Process a Time Line of the Appropriation Process.