Erosion and heavy mineral depletion of a placer mining beach along the south-west coast of India: part III—short- and long-term morphological changes

Abstract

The Chavara coast of south-west India is well known for its rich beach placer deposits which are being commercially mined by two public sector firms. The erosion of the beach and innershelf and the depletion of heavy mineral content of this coast have attracted a lot of attention of late, and an investigation of the mechanisms that drive these changes was taken up recently. The results of the investigation are presented in three parts. This paper, which is the last in the series, presents a study of the morphological changes of the beach and innershelf and integrates the results from the other two papers with an analysis of multi-dated shoreline and bathymetry data. The analysis of the multi-dated data showed an overall retreat of the shoreline and a relative deepening of the innershelf. The shoreline retreat has been quite alarming at the mining sites with one of the mining sites showing a retreat of nearly 400 m. The sediment deposition adjacent to the breakwater (built during 2000–2007) at the northern inlet has defused to some extent the high erosion observed earlier in the northernmost sector, and the presence of well-maintained seawalls has nearly maintained the shoreline south of the mining site. The erosion of the beach is accompanied by a deepening of the innershelf which is more pronounced in the shallower portions up to 10 m depth. The observed changes in the beach–innershelf morphology are analysed with respect to the nearshore sediment transport regime and heavy mineral distribution of the coast. It is observed that the combined intake of sediments by the two firms during the past one and a half decade is much above the sustainable mining level. Another contributing factor is the 2004 tsunami which drained off a sizable quantity of innershelf sediments rich in heavy minerals to the hinterland regions. The breakwaters at the two inlets bordering this coast have virtually compartmentalized this coast from the rest of the south-west coast making it a sediment sub-cell. In addition, the breakwaters act as groins causing imbalances in the erosion/accretion pattern. The recent spate in construction of shore protection structures like groins and seawalls is another contributing factor to the morphological changes. The study points to the urgent need for regulating the mining volumes to the sustainable levels as well as controlling the introduction of hard structures without proper impact analysis.