Shoreline Instability Study on Fun Island Resorts, Maldives

E W K Loh,Thoufeeg Usamath,T J Deepak

doi:10.4236/jep.2012.310148

Abstract

Shoreline changes induced by erosion and accretion are natural processes that take place over a range of time scales. They may occur in response to smaller-scale events, such as storms, regular wave action, tides and winds, or in response to large-scale events such as glaciation that significantly alter sea levels (rise/fall) and tectonic activities that cause coastal land subsidence or emergence. Environmental related issues are one of the major problems which the native islanders of the Maldives are facing throughout the history. The global warming and sea level rise have been a threat for the people of these islands. The scope of this paper is to find the shoreline instability of the coastal area along Fun Island Resort Maldives and aim is to find the abrasion, erosion on the coastal area of the island throughout the monsoon season. The coastal structures adopted as a protection against erosion has been damaged due to the 2004 Tsunami and the groynes are still to be repaired. A map was generated with the data collected on the topographic survey which shows that the maximum height of the vegetation line was found to be just +2.15 m above Mean Sea Level (MSL). Beach profiles around the island were taken to access the damage to the shoreline of the island.

Highlights

The Maldives is an archipelago of 1190 islands which is grouped in double chains of 26 atolls stretching in a North-South direction in the Indian Ocean
They may occur in response to smaller-scale events, such as storms, regular wave action, tides and winds, or in response to large-scale events such as glaciation that significantly alter sea levels and tectonic activities that cause coastal land subsidence or emergence
The scope of this paper is to find the shoreline instability of the coastal area along Fun Island Resort Maldives and aim is to find the abrasion, erosion on the coastal area of the island throughout the monsoon season

Summary

Introduction

The Maldives is an archipelago of 1190 islands which is grouped in double chains of 26 atolls stretching in a North-South direction in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is a country which bears the lowest Mean Sea Level (MSL) in the world which has an average ground level of 1.5 meters above sea level and the maximum natural ground level is 2.3 meters from the sea level These coral islands are surrounded by the sea which plays a vital role on the change of the coastal areas of the islands. Shoreline changes induced by erosion and accretion are natural processes that take place over a range of time scales They may occur in response to smaller-scale events, such as storms, regular wave action, tides and winds, or in response to large-scale events such as glaciation that significantly alter sea levels (rise/fall) and tectonic activities that cause coastal land subsidence or emergence. Research of VSTC in 2010 proved that the assessment of the terrestrial environment indicated that there is no significant vegetation on FIR, only planted coconut palms and some pioneer vegetation on the reclaimed area with barren areas in between and found from the reef surveys that there are no significant levels of coral community at the proposal locations for the over water structures (jetty, water villas and restaurants) [7]

Methodology

Survey Data Entry and Error Calculations for Traverse

Wind Data

Wave Data

Fun Island Coastal Area Topographic Survey Data

Recommendation