Abstract
Beach nourishment along the Mediterranean coast of Israel represents a new approach to mitigate coastal erosion by adding suitable sand to threatened beaches. This ‘soft’ solution has become more environmentally and economically acceptable than traditional ‘hard’ solutions, such as seawalls, revetments, detached breakwaters and groins. Beach nourishment projects have been implemented on the Israeli coast north of Ashdod Port (2011), north of Ashkelon Marina (2015) and in the south of Haifa Bay (2016–2017). The performance of these projects was analyzed and compared with nourishment projects along the Mediterranean beaches of Italy, France and Spain. Despite a lack of detailed documentation on most of the European nourishment projects, they proved more durable than the Israeli projects, which were compromised when the imported sand eventually washed offshore. Key factor for the Israeli projects’ failure include the unsuitable morphology of the beaches; insufficient unit sand volume (m3/m—volume of nourished sand per meter of the beach length); and imported sand that was too fine versus native sand. The unique physical conditions of the Israeli coast specifically, its open shelf and straight coastline subject to relatively high waves with a very long fetch—also contributed to the poor durability of the nourishment. To improve durability on future projects: imported grain size should be at least 1.5–2.0 times the native sand; unit sand volume should be 400–500 m3/m; and supporting measures should be utilized as appropriate.
Highlights
Coastal erosion is a global phenomenon caused by the action of wind, waves, currents and sea-level changes, as well as by human intervention that accelerates the erosion rate [1]
Coastal erosion generates a significant threat to society and the economy in general, and to tourism in particular [3,4,5,6]
Preserving bathing beaches is the most common reason for sand beach nourishment in European Union (EU) Mediterranean countries, as they are used for recreational activity [8,9,14,17,48,49,50,51,52,53,54]
Summary
Coastal erosion is a global phenomenon caused by the action of wind, waves, currents and sea-level changes, as well as by human intervention that accelerates the erosion rate [1]. Some European beaches retreat up to several meters per year [7], and on the Mediterranean coasts of Italy, France and Spain the length of eroded beaches: 1500 km, 1200 km, 750 km, respectively, exceeds that of the stable beaches. To mitigate coastal erosion, ‘hard’ solutions, such as seawalls, revetments, detached breakwaters and groins, have been used since the Roman Imperial period until recently [1]. These coastal defense structures do not stop beach erosion, but transfer it with the longshore current [8]. Analysis demonstrates the inefficiency of ‘hard’ solutions in reducing erosion, and their negative impact on environmental quality. The small tidal range of the Mediterranean and its wave regime compared to oceans, allows this comparison, far from perfect, for the Israeli coast
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