Risk analysis of sea bathing in Pontal do Paraná county,PR - Season 2003/2004.

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the features related to bather safety at Pontal do Paraná – PR. The study is concentrated on environmental risks, on bather behavior and spatial distribution of bather rescue. A GIS was structured with information about beaches infrastructure, the permanent and temporary risks, bather’s density in each beach, the safeguards houses and rescue statistics. Generally Pontal do Paraná bathers are neglect with their security. Only 54% of them to bath in patrolled places, 74% don’t ask for the lifeguard’s information about the sea condition and 17% don’t observe the sea condition before bather. About the bather capability of swimming was found that 50% of the bathers don’t know to swim. Despite this, 44% of the bathers go to the sea with the water at level of their thorax or above. This finding may help explain the large amount of rescue. The most part of bathers ignore the environmental risks of sea bathing like: surf zone currents; tides which continually change water depth and current velocities; wind-driven currents, and rip currents. So the hazards during sea bathing happen by an equivocated perception of the beach environment. The GIS show be useful to understand the relationship among the behavior of the bather on the beach, the physics parameters that drive the beach morphodynamic and the available lifeguards patrolling infrastructure.