**5. Conclusions**

To prevent and reduce coastal erosion and damages to human structures, as well as the comprehension of past and future climate trends and beaches' annual and seasonal behavior and evolution, it is very important to characterize the local sea climate. This paper shows as wave climate considerably varies along the Mediterranean coast of Andalusia, from a relatively sheltered area (Point 1) close to the Gibraltar Strait, exclusively affected by easterly wave fronts, to a very energetic central area (Points 2 and 3) exposed to both western and eastern fronts, and to a low-energy area (Point 4) that, because of coastal orientation, is sheltered to western and very exposed to eastern fronts. This behavior is evident when analyzing wave approaching data: main approaching storm directions for high-energy events ranged from E at Point 1, from E to W at Point 2 (only from W for Class V), from W with a small E-NE component at Point 3, and from NE at Point 4 with secondary W-SW components for Classes III and IV (13.33% W for Class III and 20% SW for Class IV). Points 2 and 3 were the most energetic points due to high-energy events approaching from western directions. Stormy years were considered years with a great cumulative energy of Classes III to V events. Nine stormy years were

selected during the investigated period, i.e., 1980, 1983, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2013. Finally, this study highlighted that the yearly probability of energy flux exceedance of more energetic events is higher in the central sector of the studied area, i.e., at Points 2 and 3, Class III events have a 100% probability; Class IV have a 41.7 to 100% probability; and Class V have a 12.7 to 58.8% probability of energy flux exceedance, so this area has a high sensitivity to storm impacts. Future investigations should be devoted to the analysis of the effects on natural and urbanized coastal environments of single representative storms of each storm class to better understand how an increase in energy and storm duration affects coastal behavior, which is strictly linked to beach morpho-dynamic state, and damages to human structures. Secondly, the effects of storm groupings should be better investigated since erosion and damages to coastal structures greatly depend on cumulative storm energy, on separation between storm events, and on natural beach recovery rates.

**Author Contributions:** Data curation, R.M., G.M. and C.L.R.; Formal analysis, R.M., G.M. and C.L.R.; Methodology, R.M., G.M., C.L.R., G.A. and G.C.; Software, C.L.R. and G.M.; Supervision, G.A., G.C.; Writing—original draft, R.M., G.M., C.L.R., G.A. and G.C.; Writing—review & editing, C.L.R., G.M., G.A. and G.C.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** This work is a contribution to the Andalusia P.A.I. Research Group no. RNM-328 and has been partially developed at the Centro Andaluz de Ciencia y Tecnología Marinas (CACYTMAR), Puerto Real (Cádiz, Spain).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
