El Heri, Lebanon, 1962–2007

PHOTO 5.1

Total Shoreline Accretion or Erosion of Chekka and El Heri, Lebanon, 1962–2007

Legend

Shoreline of 1962

Shoreline of 2007

Changes

Erosion 79,000 m2

Accretion 25,000 m2

Sea filling 16,000 m2

Source: Nader 2015. © Manal Nader. Used with the permission of Manal Nader. Further permission required for reuse. Note: “Sea filling” (yellow area) designates a jetty built to service a cement factory near the coast. km = kilometers ; m2 = square meters.

these two countries, only photos made by satellites launched from 2000 onward were used to divide the coasts into finer segments, allowing for more precise interpretations.

Coastal Changes in Tunisia

Shoreline changes vary greatly, even in Tunisia, where 85 percent of the coastline is identified as sandy. The fastest-accreting areas are along the coasts of the Sfax, Gabés, and Médenine Governorates (map 5.2). Accretion rates of 2 meters per year or more are occurring in 13 governorates. Intensive erosion is concentrated in seven main areas, exceeding 2 meters per year in Utiquere in Bizerte and Korba in Nabeul. Overall, there is more erosion in the north and more accretion in the south.

More than one-third of Tunisia’s sandy beaches (about 35 percent) are eroding at a rate of more than 0.5 meters per year, with some eroding by several meters per year. One declared erosion hot spot is Hammamet Bay along the Mediterranean coast, south of the capital in northeast Tunisia. Coastal erosion of Hammamet’s beach resulted in the loss of 24,000 square meters of beach area in only 13 years (2006–19), at a rate of 3–8 meters per year, as shown in photo 5.2 (Heger and Vashold 2021). This is mostly caused by rapid urbanization on the coast of Hammamet, hindering the natural sediment flow to the shoreline (Amrouni, Hzami, and Heggy 2019). Urbanization, coastal erosion, and associated vegetation loss have also exposed aquifers to seawater intrusion and salinization.

Coastal Changes in Morocco

Coastal erosion and accretion processes in Morocco also vary widely. On Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, intensive accretion is occurring in Fahs Anjra and Tétouan Provinces (map 5.3). Developments such as North Africa’s largest port, Tanger-Med—a strip of development 1.6 square kilometers long on the Strait of Gibraltar, at Morocco’s northern tip—are likely to significantly affect shoreline-change rates. Other sources of change relate to the hydrological cycle and the rates of river-flow deposition at estuarine locations.

Farther east along Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, erosion processes become more dominant, particularly on either side of Driouch Province in the Port of Al Hoceima Bay and surrounding the Nador West Med Port project. There are severe accretion rates within the lagoon at Nador, whereas the outer coast of Nador has intensive erosion. Numerous studies on the threat of SLR to the Moroccan coastline have been carried out (Kasmi et al. 2020; Snoussi, Ouchani, and Niazi 2008; Snoussi et al. 2009).