DYNAMIC PROCESS ALONG THE EASTERN ZONE OF MARINA RESORT CENTRE ON THE NORTHWESTERN COAST OF EGYPT

DYNAMIC PROCESS ALONG THE EASTERN ZONE OF
MARINA RESORT CENTRE ON THE NORTHWESTERN
COAST OF EGYPT
ABO BAKER .I. ABO ZED
Coastal Research Institute, 15 El Pharaana Street, El Shallalat 21514, Alexandria, Egypt
[email protected]

Keywords: Erosion/accretion, sediment drift rate, bottom relief deformation, grain size
variation, fluorescent sand tracer, waves, current, hydrographic profiles.

ABSTRACT
Marina resort centre lies on the western coast of Egypt overlooking the Mediterranean
beach. Its beach situated in an open active area exposed to the combined action of waves
and currents. Five jetties and eight groins and artificial sand nourishment have been
implemented to protect the beach and guarantee safety of swimmers and keep connection of
the Mediterranean Sea with the lagoon. Intensive measurement program (2007) was carried
out along the eastern zone of Marina resort centre, including hydrographic profiles, tides,
currents and surface sediment samples to provide a basis for possible protection process. In
additions two fluorescent experiments using sand tracer were performed during winter and
summer seasons along the study area in order to study the sediments transport
quantitatively and qualitatively and their effect on the morphology of these beaches. The
experiments revealed that erratic current governed the drifting of sediments eastward and
offshore by induced long shore and rip currents. The study, indicated that the amount of
artificial sand nourishment as proposed by Delft Hydraulics (2000), 0.08 x 106
m3
/yr is
much lower than the calculated average sediment drift during this study, 0.24 x 106
m3
/yr.
The hydrographic profiles shows that the beach face slope is very steep, hence permits the
wave approach breaks close to the beach causing sever erosion and turbulent water
conditions to the swimmers. Bottom relief deformation defined from profiles survey data
indicates that significant erosion is taken place along most of the nearshore area and
extends up to about 2.0 km offshore. To mitigate the problem of erosion and the presence
of strong rip currents, the proposed scheme would improve the swimming conditions in the
protected area in terms of wave height, current and also in terms of more gentle coastal
profile. Therefore, it is recommended that, the proposed solution should put into
consideration considerable reduction of wave energy and tompolo formation should be
avoided. In addition the proposed solution includes the ridges as an engineering component
in designing mitigation measure along this zone. A 2D mathematical and physical models
should carry out to find the adequate adapting measures to get the attempt solution which
might be perched beach method combined with submerged breakwater.