Mitigation measures for Gaza coastal erosion

Joint Authors

Abu al-Tayf, Mazin Taha
Abd Rabbih, Abd al-Fattah Nazmi
Matar, Umar
Sayf, Ahmad Khalid
al-Hurani, Rashad
al-Shaykh, Ibrahim
Matar, Samir
Abu Ful, Ahmad M.

Source

المؤتمر الدولي الهندسي الرابع : “نحو هندسة القرن الحادي و العشرين” : الذي نظمته كلية الهندسة بالجامعة الإسلامية-غزة يومي الاثنين و الثلاثاء الخامس عشر و السادس عشر من تشرين أول / أكتوبر 2012.

Publisher

Islamic University of Gaza Faculty of Engineering

Publication Date

2012-10-31

Country of Publication

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

No. of Pages

13

Main Subjects

Engineering & Technology Sciences (Multidisciplinary)

English Abstract

Coastal erosion is an ongoing hazard affecting Gaza beach, but is worsening due to a wide range of human activities such as the construction of two groins in early 1972, nine detached breakwaters built in 1978 and the construction of Gaza fishing harbor in 1994-1998.

The net annual alongshore sediment transport is ranged from 160 * 103 to 220 * 103 m3, but can vary significantly depending on the severity of winter storms.

According to the observed wave heights and directions, the net waves are cross-shore, therefore vast quantities of sediments may transfer to deep sea.

The main objective of this study is to mitigate the erosion problem of Gaza coast.

Change detection analysis, using the ERDAS Imagines and ArcGIS, was used to compute the spatial and temporal change of Gaza shoreline between 1972 and 2010.

Several medium spatial resolution optical Landsat images were used in the analysis.

The results show negative rates in general, which means that the erosion was the predominant process.

Gaza fishing harbor caused a serious damage to the Beach Camp shoreline, especially after removing six detached breakwaters located at the eroded area.

The annual erosion rate at the north of fishing harbor is 14*103 m2.

On the other hand, the annual accretion rate of 16*103 m2 was trapped behind the southern breakwater of fishing harbor.

As a result, several mitigation measures were considered in this study, which are : relocation of Gaza fishing harbor to offshore, groins field system, detached breakwaters, wide-crested submerged breakwaters and beach nourishment.

Several numerical model tests associated with coastal structures are conducted to investigate the influence on morphodynamics.

The numerical model is based on a coastal area model [1], which consists of four modules: a quasi three dimensional nearshore current module, a hydrodynamic module [2], a sediment transport module and a beach evolution module [3].

The results show that the relocation of the harbor is the best alternative to stop trapping of the sediments.

If for any reason the relocation was not carried out, the wide-crested submerged breakwater alternative, which is so-called “Artificial reef’, is an effective structure for preventing sandy beach erosion due to wave and nearshore current actions, and for the landscape of sea-view in front of sandy beaches.

The artificial reef type of submerged breakwaters with beach nourishment is recommended for Gaza beach, because it is an environmentally friendly and improving the ecosystem of marine life and the fishing industry.

Data Type

Conference Papers

Record ID

BIM-777339

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