The Ebro Delta coastal change: natural and human factors  <B>The Ebro Delta coastal change: natural and human factors</B><P>A. Palanques and J. Guillen</B><I><P> Institut de Ciencies del Mar (CSIC), Passeig Joan de Borbo s/n, Barcelona, Spain</I><P> Abstract<P> The Ebro Delta evolution has been controlled by natural and maninduced factors during the last centuries. Deforestation of its drainage basin favoured a fast progradation of the deltaic system until this century when many dams were constructed along the Ebro River and its tributaries. As the sediment load of the river has been retained in the dams, the river sediment discharge has been drastically reduced and erosive processes have become dominant in the Ebro Delta coast. This situation is producing a reshaping of the nearshore deltaic area and a redistribution of the pre existing beach sediment. In addition, a relative sea level rise could occur, either by increase of the subsidence rate or by a global climatic warming , both caused by natural and maninduced factors. If this conditions continue in the future, severe changes will take place in the Ebro Delta coast.<P>