Evaluation of the new coastal protection scheme at Mamaia Bay in the nearshore of the Black Sea

Abstract

The target area of the proposed study, Mamaia beach, is a narrow stretch of sand barrier island that sits between the Siutghiol Lake and the Black Sea. In the northern part of the bay, is located the Midia Port, where between 1966 and 1971 a long extension of 5 km of the offshore was built. Because of this extension, the natural flow of sediments has been significantly changed. Thus, the southern part of the Mamaia Bay had less sand nourishment which meant that the coast was eroding and to prevent it a protection of six dikes was built. After approximately forty years of coastal erosion, the south of the Mamaia Bay had in 2016 a new protection scheme, which includes first of all the beach nourishment and a new dike structure (groins scheme for protection) to protect it. From this perspective, the objective of the proposed study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the old Master plan against the new one by modeling the outcome of the two scenarios and to perform a comparison with a third one, in which the protection dikes do not exist and only the artificial nourishment has been done. In order to assess the wave processes and the current patterns along the shoreline, a complex computational framework has been applied in the target area. This joins the SWAN spectral phase averaged model with the 1D surf model. Furthermore, new UAV technology was also used to map out, chart and validate the numerical model outputs within the target zone for a better evaluation of the trends expected in the shoreline dynamics.