Between Lima and Cávado rivers, since the end of 80’s, a fast and progressive (from North to South) disappearance of sandy beaches and their replacement by gravel beaches have been observed. However, this phenomenon had already taken place before the Little Ice Age.

The understanding of the gravel beaches morpho-sedimentar dynamics needs field experimentation. Belinho beach in Esposende was chosen for this study. Five field missions were carried out to know how morphological changes are related with hidrodynamic states. Several high precision topographic surveys with DGPS were done and their data processing through Arcgis software. Maps and 3D models of the beach were obtained allowing the observation of changes between campaigns.

The short term study, during the spring of 2014, shows relative stability in the gravel beach of Belinho. The maximal altimetric variations during the whole period were about 1m and 0.5m during a tidal cycle.