Impact of Coastal Erosion and Sedimentation along the Northern Coast of Sinai Peninsula

Abstract

Coastal engineering activities during the past five decades have resulted in considerable shoreline change along the northern coast of Sinai Peninsula. In the west of El Arish Power Plant, sediment accretion has reached the tip of the breakwater of the cooling water intake basin necessitating extensive dredging inside the basin. In the east of El Arish Harbor, the shoreline is continuously retreating. Previous activities to mitigate the erosion have not succeeded. For example, the groin field in the east of the El Arish Harbor has transferred the problem to the neighboring beaches farther downcoast. In this study predominant coastal processes affecting the erosion of the Sinai northern coastline were investigated. Wave-induced longshore currents were found to be responsible for transporting the littoral drift along the coastline. Longshore sediment transport, from Port Said to Ashqelon, was quantified and the general patterns of erosion-accretion were determined by looking upon the gradients between transport rates along the coast. Particular emphasis was placed on shoreline change due to perturbations introduced by infrastructure sited at the coastline near El Arish. The shoreline change at El Arish Power Plant and Harbor were modeled using the coastal evolution model GENESIS. Having understood the coastal processes driving the shoreline change at these two locations, appropriate remedial measures were proposed to mitigate the problem. In this regard, a combination of hard and soft coastal engineering methods are presented to alleviate the dredging problem at the power plant while sand-bypassing/beach-nourishment is suggested as an effective sustainable solution to the erosion problem in the east of El Arish Harbor