<%namespace name="tools" file="tools.tex"/>

The study area is Ancao Peninsula constituting the westernmost barrier of the Ria Formosa barrier island system. It is a NW-SE oriented sandy barrier that is attached to mainland by its western terminus.
The area is mesotidal, with an average tidal range of about 2 m that can reach up to 3.5 m during spring tides. Analysis of two years of records from a tidal gauge on the Algarve Coast showed a maximum observed storm surge level of +0.75 m \citep{Gama1994}. The return period of a sea level 2.23 m above Mean Sea Level (MSL) is 10 years \citep{Gama1994}.
The offshore wave climate is dominated by west-southwest waves (71\% of occurrences). SE waves that consist of short period waves generated by regional winds (locally called 'Levante') are also frequent (about 23\%). Wave energy is moderate with an average annual significant offshore wave height of 1.0 m and average peak period of 8.2 s \citep{Costa2001}.
Storm events in the region are considered when the significant offshore wave height exceeds 3 m (Pessanha and Pires, 1981) and typically correspond to less than 1\% of the offshore wave climate \citep{Costa2001}. A 5.0 m significant wave height for a SE storm has a return period of 50 years, whilst a 5.7 m SW storm is expected every 5 years \citep{Pires1998}. Due to it's northwest-southeast orientation it is directly exposed to west-southwesterly waves, and is relatively protected from SE waves.
Several storm events have been recorded during the MICORE campaign among which the two most important are discussed in the MICORE report. Here a group of several individual WSW storms is simulated that took place at Faro beach from 18/12/2009 until 5/1/2010. The significant wave height reached 4 m and the peak period up to 20 sec, while given the long duration intense wave conditions coincided with both spring and neap tides. The event had a significant impact on the coast, as overtopping and dune erosion occurred at several sections. 

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The obtained simulation results with XBeach were in general not satisfactory as they result in negative BSS values. Apart from the unrealistic berm erosion, another significant difference between the measured and simulated profiles is that upper profile change in Faro beach appeared to decelerate during the storm period (see \autoref{fig:MICORE_Praia_de_Faro_event9_profiles}), a behavior which the model did not appear to follow. After the morphological change of the first storms, the beach appeared to reach a new 'equilibrium state', which was affected only when storm conditions coincided with exceptionally high tidal levels. On the other hand, current XBeach modelling efforts resulted in erosion even in these equilibrium conditions.
Another deviation from the field observations, apart from the increased berm erosion and scarping, is a narrower profile section with morphological change, compared to the one shown by the data. 

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##${tools.image('MICORE_Praia_de_Faro/event1/', 'profiles.eps')}
##${tools.image('MICORE_Praia_de_Faro/event2/', 'profiles.eps')}
##${tools.image('MICORE_Praia_de_Faro/event3/', 'profiles.eps')}
##${tools.image('MICORE_Praia_de_Faro/event8/', 'profiles.eps')}
${tools.image('MICORE_Praia_de_Faro/event9/', 'profiles.eps')}