Coastal changes at the Sulina mouth of the Danube River as a result of human activities

Abstract

Sulina, the middle distributary of the Danube Delta, has been significantly changed by human activities over the past 150 yr. These include engineering works in the second half of the 19th century, when the channel was transformed for navigation and the construction of jetties which nowadays extend 8 km seawards. These interventions have strongly affected the natural processes of the Black Sea coast near the Sulina mouth. To the south of the Sulina mouth, the natural mild erosion has been reversed in the area close to the jetties where accretion is occurring, while southwards the greatest erosion rate along the entire Romanian coast, of more than 20 m/yr, has been recorded. Sediment accumulation in the northern part of the mouth is also huge and has brought to the creation and swift elongation of a sediment spit in several decades. Thus, the bay located here suffers from a rapid transformation into a lagoon.