Geomorphological effects of tropical cyclones in Costa Rica

Tropical cyclones have repeatedly provoked intense devastation over the course of the last decades, and societal drivers such as unplanned urbanization and the lack of flood risk assessments have worse the problem further. Landslides and floods are frequent hazards linked to tropical cyclones. This is not the exception in Costa Rica, where more than 90% of all disasters are hydrometeorological in nature. Different climatic change scenarios indicate that more and stronger tropical cyclones will affect the North Atlantic Basin, where Central America and the Caribbean lie. This study gathers the different methodologies used to understand the geomorphic effects of tropical cyclones in Costa Rica. This study present geomorphic, hydrological, dendrochronological, and risk assessment approaches that look to reduce the human and economic impacts of tropical cyclones in the Central American country. Finally, this study is a call to apply geomorphic assessments in order elucidate the endogenic and exogenic processes related to tropical cyclones affectation on low latitudes.